


Saving Souls

by Scouts_Mockingbird



Series: Saving Souls AU [1]
Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Inspired by Stranger Things (TV 2016), Now With More Ghosts, POV Multiple, Physical Abuse, Teenaged Angst Bullshit, Veronica is a medium
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-04 05:20:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 41,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12162348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scouts_Mockingbird/pseuds/Scouts_Mockingbird
Summary: Jason Dean has been a ghost hunter since he was ten years old. Sherwood, Ohio is just one more small town with a vengeful spirit problem, that is, until he meets Veronica Sawyer.Veronica Sawyer is very good at ignoring the ghosts that she's been able to see since she was a child,  but when JD comes to her needing her help to hunt a ghost, she is forced to embrace her abilities to keep them alive.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Happy JDonica Day! I'm so excited to start this new project. This is my first foray into the supernatural genre so you may have to bear with me, but I really love this AU and I have big plans for it! Enjoy!

Jason Dean was staring at yet another dead teenager.

Bile rose in his throat as he realized what he’d have to do.

“ _Rule Number One, Jason, never get caught. Never tell the secrets.”_

As always, his father’s words echoed in his head. He had dozens of rules that were absolutely imperative to doing the job well, and keeping themselves hidden. Of course, rule number one changed depending on what JD had done wrong most recently. This made it so that he had always broken Rule Number One, no matter what he’d actually done. Still, this time he was determined to do it right.

He went over to his black duffel bag, which held his gun and the other supplies necessary for warding off and destroying ghosts, and retrieved a length of rope. They hadn’t helped him save this guy—formerly a basketball player at the high school JD was attending—he’d been possessed, then had died when the ghost left his body. Though the kid had been an asshole, JD still felt guilty that he hadn’t been able to help him. It was supposed to be his job, his family legacy, yet he had been pretty unsuccessful at actually saving anyone since he started when he was ten. Seven years later, and his track record as a ghost hunter was spotty at best.

At least it was better than his father’s. Bud Dean had given up on saving anyone, his mission was to track down and destroy as many evil spirits as he could before one of them finally killed him. He tended to not bother much with the many normal people who died in the process, so long as none of them could get the Deans in trouble.

JD mulled all this over as he worked. When a ghost kills someone, it doesn’t leave any marks, which is good for covering up deaths. JD typically staged them to look like suicides or accidents if he could. Anything that looked like murder was too risky, and he didn’t like wasting police manpower. No one would ever know that a ghost killed this kid.

The body swung from the tree, still spinning slightly after being pulled up. JD watched for a moment, wondering if he should say a few words.

“You were an asshole, but you probably deserved better. Sorry.”

He threw the pathetic eulogy out into the world then turned and walked away. Someone would probably find him later today or tomorrow, the whole town would mourn. His parents and siblings would spend the rest of their lives wondering why he’d done it. JD never left notes, but he often wished that he could. At least a suicide note—even a fake one—would provide some kind of answer.

He grabbed his bag, swung it over his shoulder and walked away, his long coat flapping slightly in the wind. He headed for house he was living in for now. He needed to get back.

They were moving to Ohio today.


	2. On Boys and Ghosts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting this way later than I meant to, I had the prologue written and I was polishing the first chapter because I didn't want to post it without having both done. Here it finally is! I'm so excited about this story and I hope you are too. I'll start dedicating chapters when this starts getting comments. Enjoy!

_September 21, 1989_

_Dear Diary,_

_The halls are full of ghosts today. I get that the afterlife is boring, but I wish they could leave the never-ending teenaged soap opera that is Westerburg High for a few days just to give me a break. Sometimes I see them out of the corner of my eye and I don’t even notice that they aren’t real people, other times they walk so close to me that I can’t avoid them. The only thing that can make this place worse is a bunch of bored spirits wandering around doing nothing all day. On a completely different note, it’s been three weeks since I joined the Heathers. Sure, blackmail is wrong and all that, but I can’t deny the benefits. Absolutely no one bothers me anymore, and all I have to do is keep track of a few secrets and let a few slip to Heather now and again. As long as she never figures out my source, I’m totally fine. I guess I finally found the benefits of being a medium._

 

“Veronica!” Heather McNamara’s voice dragged Veronica out of her diary and back into the world of the Heathers, “Heather needs to see you at her locker.”

Veronica rolled her eyes, “Seriously? I’m being summoned? God sometimes I think her power’s gone to her head.”

Heather Duke snorted, but stopped when McNamara glared at her. Veronica had to hand it to them, they were pretty bitchy to everyone else, but the Heathers were loyal to each other.

When she arrived at Heather Chandler’s locker, Veronica was struck—as usual—but how in control she was. Heather was the kind of person who you noticed every time she walked into a room. Everything about her, from her perfectly styled hair to her bright red jacket, screamed _power._

“Veronica,” She smiled a little too brightly, “I need you to do something for me.”

Veronica suppressed a groan, doing favors for Heather had put Veronica a little to close to her moral line already. “What, Heather?”

“Kurt Kelly is going to ask you out today. I need you to say yes.” Heather was still smiling, and her tone was cheerful, but Veronica sensed a note of command in it. She definitely didn’t have a say in this at all.

“I don’t know Heather, I think I’m over the guys at this school. They’re all the same.”

“Come on, Veronica! He’s the quarterback, that’s practically celebrity status in a town like Sherwood. Besides, it’ll be fun!” Veronica seriously doubted that. Kurt Kelly was a huge dick most of the time; somehow she doubted that changed when school was out.

Veronica sighed, and relented anyway. Arguing with Heather was a waste of time, “Alright, one date. But if it sucks, you can’t ever ask me to do it again.”

Heather beamed, “Okay great! Call me tonight to tell me how it goes. He’s been into you for like weeks now, so I bet it’s going to be great!”

Veronica wasn’t surprised that the beginning of Kurt’s crush happened to coincide with the Heather’s makeover on the first day of school.

“God, you put on a short skirt and suddenly all the boys realize you’re a human,” Veronica muttered under her breath.

Kurt approached her as she was leaving the Heathers lunch table, “Hey, Veronica, you’re looking good today.” He smiled as he looked her up and down. Veronica held her notebooks and diary in front of her in a vain attempt to hide from his stare. Kurt was oblivious to her discomfort, and he plowed on, “So, I was wondering if you wanted to go out sometime, grab some food,” He quirked an eyebrow and smirked, “maybe hang out at the overview?”

Veronica glanced over her shoulder and saw that the Heathers were watching her. She didn’t have a choice, “Yeah. Sure, Kurt. Pick me up at eight, I guess.” She turned and walked away without waiting for a response.

Heather Chandler smiled and linked arms with her as they left the cafeteria, “This is so exciting Veronica, you guys could be Westerburg’s power couple!”

“Ugh, Heather, no. I don’t want to be any kind of couple with Kurt. I’m only doing this as a favor to you,” Veronica insisted. The Heathers didn’t take her seriously, instead they laughed like she’d told a great joke and all sauntered into the halls. They would be late to class, but things like that didn’t seem to matter when you were a Heather.

 

That night, Veronica struggled to come up with an outfit that conveyed the right message. She had to look great, because she was with the Heathers and they didn’t tolerate poor fashion choices, but she needed her clothes to say ‘I’m not sleeping with you so don’t ask’. In the end she just pulled on a dress and a jacket. It probably didn’t matter. Kurt would try something no matter what she was wearing.

Kurt arrived promptly at eight and took her to the diner. Veronica picked absently at her plate of fries, while Kurt attempted to ingest three burgers at once.

“See, Veronica, when you’re an athlete, you have a lot of needs,” Veronica resisted the urge to tell him where to shove his needs, “Like, I need to eat a lot, but I also need water and you know… other stuff.” Kurt looked up to see if Veronica was following. She barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes.

Oblivious to her boredom, Kurt continued, “So, you know, that’s why I wanted a date tonight.”

“Okay…” Veronica wasn’t sure if she should give her speech now, or when Kurt actually tried to make a move on her.

Kurt didn’t give her the chance to reply, “So, uh, do you like movies?”

The date went as well as could have been expected after that. Kurt Kelly had no gift for conversation, and he lacked the emotional depth to pick up on her sarcasm. Veronica felt like she was talking to a child. And not even a smart child. At the end of the night, as he was dropping her off at home, Kurt pinned her against the car door and kissed her.

Veronica pulled away as soon as she could, but she’d still had to suffer through several seconds of the worst kiss ever. Kurt tasted like overcooked beef and a disappointing future.

When it was over she practically ran into her house, barely even thanking him for the date. She went up to her room and grabbed her diary.

            _Dear Diary,_

_Had a date with Kurt Kelly tonight. It was pretty much the worst thing ever; I swear that’s the last time I ever do anything nice for Heather. Jesus, I’m ready to just give up on high school guys altogether. Why is it that the fact that I see dead people is the part of my life that’s the easiest to understand? Seriously, I get the dead; it’s the living that confuse me. But then, the dead don’t really bother me. They just kind of hover around, I’ve barely ever spoken to ghosts, except when one of them wants to share a secret. Ugh, I’m going to bed. Hopefully school tomorrow is alright._

School the next day was not alright. It wasn’t even decent. It was an absolute disaster. Kurt had gone ahead and told the whole football team that they were together. Dating. And because of high school logic, that means that it was definitely true and no one would listen to her when she said it wasn’t.

The Heathers were thrilled, “Veronica, this is so excited, now that you have a popular boyfriend, your place on Westerburg’s social hierarchy is set.” Heather McNamara was beaming and even Heather Chandler had summoned a smile.

“I don’t want to date Kurt. I actively dislike Kurt. I can’t even have a conversation with him,” Veronica pleaded, she felt like a child asking for her parents permission to do something. When had her life become so… not her own?

Duke rolled her eyes, “Veronica, you don’t have to talk to him, just be seen with him. Go to parties with him, kiss him in the hallways or something.”

Tuning out Duke’s rant, Veronica surveyed the hallway and noticed a new face.

An attractive face.

He was tall and broad shouldered, with dark hair that flopped onto his forehead. He smirked when he caught her staring at him, and she forced herself to look away and pay attention to her ‘friends’.

Chandler interrupted Duke, “Veronica, stop complaining. You’re with the most powerful clique in school now, and dating a guy like Kurt is part of that. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll play along.”

Veronica groaned, but she nodded, “Sure, fine. Whatever.” Chandler gave her a smug smile and walked away, the other two following after her. Veronica was left alone at her locker.

Until the mysterious newcomer joined her.

He leaned against the wall of lockers next to her and searched her face, “You shouldn’t have bowed down to them.”

Veronica stared right back at him, equally curious, “Excuse me?”

“You shouldn’t have bowed down to them, they’ll just keep asking for more, and worse stuff. You have a soul, you should work on keeping it clean.” His eyes were pale blue and sharp, like he was thinking hard about every word he said. “After all, ‘we’re all born marked for evil’.”

He turned and began to walk away; she grabbed the back of the long, dark coat he was wearing, “Wait! Don’t just quote Baudelaire at me and then walk away.” He turned back towards her slowly, a smile spreading across his features. Veronica took this as a good sign, “I didn’t catch your name.”

His smile turned smug, “I didn’t throw it.”

He turned and walked away, leaving Veronica stunned and irritated in his wake. Well, if Mr. No Name Kid wanted to play it that way, he could. Too bad for him he was trying to keep information from Veronica Sawyer.

Kurt tried to stop her on her way to the bathroom, but she had an urgent mission, so she brushed him off. She locked the restroom door behind her, Séances called for a little bit of privacy.

Veronica leaned against the bathroom mirror and took a deep breath, focusing her energy. She felt her awareness shift, now she was in two places at once.

Stepping into the spirit world was like having one foot on either side of a door, Veronica was vaguely aware of what was happing around her in the real world, but she could also see and hear the shadows and whispers of the other side. She waited for a minute, usually, being alive in the spirit world was enough to draw attention, and ghosts came to her.

Eventually, it worked and three bored-looking ghosts sidled up to her. She stepped back into the real world and they were still standing in front of her.

She took a deep breath, “I need some information, can you help me?”

Two of the ghosts disappeared, but one of the women had stayed. She had no obvious wounds, and had probably died of an illness, though sometimes it was hard to tell. She hadn’t died in a hospital though, because she was wearing normal clothes. She stared patiently at Veronica, waiting for her task.

That was the nice thing about ghosts; most of them were so bored they’d do just about anything for you.

“I just met this guy, but he wouldn’t tell me his name. I need to find it out. He’s tall, dark hair, wearing a black trench coat. Just follow him to his classes and listen to see if someone says it.”

The ghost woman nodded and slipped back into the spirit realm for faster travel. Veronica was alone.

She exited the bathroom and headed towards the cafeteria, Heather would be mad at her for being late to lunch, but Veronica could live with that.

She made it to their table at exactly the right moment to see Kurt and Ram walk over to her nameless new kid. _That’s a bad sign_ she thought. The jocks were not who she would’ve chosen as Westerburg’s welcoming committee.

They were too far away to hear whatever words were exchanged, but Veronica felt a deep stab of satisfaction when the new guy hit Kurt in the face with whatever book he was reading. Ram tried to get around him to hold his arms, but Mr. No Name Kid was fast. He spun around and hit Ram too.

The fight was over as fast as it had begun. The new kid had been hit once—a glancing blow to his cheek—and both Kurt and Ram were on the ground whimpering. It was actually pretty hilarious.

Heather Chandler did not agree, “Ugh, fucking psycho.” Duke and McNamara both murmured agreements.

The lunch bell rang and teachers began shooing them all away from the scene and towards their classes, but out of the corner of her eye, she could swear she saw the new guy _wink_ at her as he flicked his hair out of his face.

For a moment, she let herself imagine that she was going out with a guy like that, instead of Kurt. He was the exact opposite of what Heather Chandler wanted her to date, but he was definitely what she would choose for herself, if she was allowed to choose.


	3. Some Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Switching perspectives is new for me, so you'll have to tell me what you think. Special thanks to Ghostlyactivities.com for being a resource as I try to figure out what the rules are in this universe. If you have any questions on that front, please comment or send asks to my tumblr (Scouts-Mockingbird). Enjoy!

“A fight? On the first fucking day? It’s rule number one Jason, ‘Don’t be noticed’. So of course, you go and get the whole goddamn school talking about you.” Bud had seen the bruise on JD’s cheek as soon as he got home, and he hadn’t been happy about why it was there.

“The whole school thinks I’m insane now, they’ll leave me alone,” JD hated feeling like he was pleading, but he’d been punched enough for one day so he tried to stay on Bud’s good side.

Today didn’t seem like one of the days Bud even had a good side. The rant went on for ages, and JD gave up on trying to defend himself from the verbal assault. He stood still and waited for it to be over.

“Dammit! I swear one of these days I’ll leave you behind and find myself a competent partner.” JD chose not to point out that; in fact, he wasn’t Bud’s partner, but his son.

“You’re fucking useless. I give you one job, ‘go to school, try to figure out who’s going to be possessed, lie low’ that’s all you had to do, and you couldn’t manage it.” Bud stopped for breath and JD thought for a moment that it was over, but then he started back up again, “Next you’ll be making friends and bringing girls home. Don’t forget the mission!”

_How could I forget? It’s what mom died for._ JD didn’t say this either. Talking about his mom was never safe. Even seven years after her death, the wounds were too raw.

Finally his father huffed loudly and walked out of the room, taking the time to smack JD on the side of his head as he went by. JD rubbed at the sore spot on his way up the stairs to his new room. He sat on his still unmade bed and pulled his gun out of the pocket of his coat. He cleaned it methodically and thought about the girl he’d spoken to today.

He couldn’t for the life of him figure out what had possessed him to go up and talk to her. Sure, she was gorgeous, but he’d seen lots of pretty girls, and none of them had ever inspired him to break his personal rule number one: Don’t get attached. Stay numb. And yet, watching her get bullied by the Heathers had made him want to leave that behind.

She had made him smile, had almost made him laugh. When she’d recognized his weird, obscure quote he’d been tempted to turn around and kiss her, just to see what it felt like.

And he had flirted with her. It was all a mistake. He never should have gone anywhere near the girl in the blue blazer, should never have looked into those intelligent brown eyes. Against his better judgment, he hoped he would see her again.

Veronica. He was grateful to the two assholes that’d picked a fight with him for giving him her name at least. They had witnessed his brief conversation with Veronica and taken offense. She was, apparently, Kurt’s girl. JD found that a little hard to believe. He’d seen her after the fight, and she had been laughing at the two guys on the ground.

What kind of girl disliked her boyfriend enough to enjoy seeing him in pain on the ground? He didn’t have an answer for that, and he wanted an opportunity to ask her, though he knew it was dangerous. He had already interacted with Veronica too much. Besides, if she ever found out what was really going on in his life she would think he was insane and run right back into the arms of that jock she was dating.

As he finished cleaning the gun and did his final inspection of it, he determined that the only reason he found her so intriguing was that she was a mystery and a paradox. She hung out with the popular girls, but she recognized pretentious, obscure quotes, she was dating a jealous football player, but she flirted with JD, and of course, her eyes. Something about those round dark eyes made him feel like she could see more than he could, it was fascinating to him.

_She_ was fascinating to him.

He shook that thought away; _that_ was way too close to attachment for his taste. It was fine to find Veronica interesting— maybe he could fudge the rules and flirt with her a little—but he couldn’t let her in. If Bud even suspected that JD had a close friend or (God forbid) a girlfriend, he would flip his shit. JD shuddered just thinking about it.

Yeah, it was definitely a bad idea to drag Veronica into his shit show of a life. Even without the ghost hunting aspect, it was too crazy for someone like her. He tried to ignore the spike of disappointment that caused.

He tucked his gun into his waistband and threw his coat on. Climbing onto his bike, he went to the same place he always went when he needed to be numb.

As he drove, he saw hordes of teenagers out and about, just beginning their Friday night. Not for the first time he wondered what it would be like to have his biggest concern be finding a way to hit three keggers before curfew. Instead he had to deal with evil spirits and a semi-psychotic father, all while also attending high school.

At least this town had the decency to provide a 7/11. It looked exactly like all the others, a squat, cinderblock building with neon lights. He went inside and lingered by the slushies for longer than it took for him to actually make up his mind which one he wanted. He had nowhere to be so he may as well hang out here.

He spent the time considering who might be a likely target for haunting or possession. Ghosts tended to look for people who were tense and angry—this was part of the reason JD maintained numbness whenever he could—which is why they often flocked to high schools. Teenagers were an endless font of resentment and poorly contained rage.

Everyone he had interacted with on his first day could be added to the list. Except Veronica. He pushed her to the back of his mind and took another long sip from his slushie; the resulting headache centered him. He had to stop thinking about that girl. His mind turned instead to her friends, so that Veronica could remain in the periphery. They were all named Heather, and they all seemed terrible. Heather Chandler was the leader, and JD knew that that kind of power would attract spirits. If something was coming to Sherwood, Heather Chandler would be at the highest risk.

So his next plan would be to shadow her at school and try to observe any unusual behavior. If he had any reason to suspect she’d been taken over, then he would have to take action.

Spirit possessions were ugly things. Often the trauma of having your soul ripped out of your body and replaced with something else was too much for people to survive, like the kid in the last town. In general, banishing ghosts from people was difficult, and JD wasn’t super comfortable with the more ritualistic aspects of it. The best way to end a spirit was to kill the body it inhabited. A soul could survive its body dying once, but not usually twice.

He took another sip from the slushie and thought about how he would kill time in this town until he had an actual ghost to deal with. As the haunting of Heather Chandler was still totally hypothetical he didn’t have a lot to do while his dad dealt with whatever entity had taken up residence in that hotel.

At that moment, a very tempting answer walked into the store.

Veronica was dressed up and wearing more makeup than she had been at school, and she looked great. She didn’t notice him at first, her attention caught on a display of corn nuts in the front of the store.

Unable to resist, he sidled up next to her, “Greetings and salutations, you want a slushie with that?”

She turned and looked up at him, her mouth tilted up into a smile, “No, but if you’re nice I’ll let you buy me a big gulp.”

He laughed, “You’re really missing out. Do you want cherry or lime?” He didn’t know what had gotten into him, because he was definitely flirting with her.

She rolled her eyes, but smiled, “I said I want a big gulp.” He watched as her smile faded, and he wondered if he’d done something wrong, but her eyes were fixated on the empty corner of the store. He turned and looked, but couldn’t see anything that would hold her attention.

“Um, I’m Veronica Sawyer, were you ever going to tell me your name, Jason Dean?” Her question called his attention back to her, distracting him from whatever she might have been looking at.

He smirked, “I was going to end the suspense at some point. How did you find out?”

Veronica gave him an endearing, mysterious smile, “I have my sources.” He raised his eyebrows, “What? I’m not allowed to be enigmatic too?”

JD had to laugh at that, and realized that he’d laughed more during the course of this conversation than he had in the last year. _You’re a lot more dangerous than you look, Veronica Sawyer._

“So that thing you pulled in the caf today was pretty severe,” She said, and he couldn’t read her tone.

Against his better judgment he kept flirting with her, “The extreme always seems to make an impression. Sorry I messed up your boyfriend’s face.”

Veronica rolled her eyes, “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Have you tried telling him that? Because he definitely thinks that you’re his girlfriend.”

Veronica’s dark eyes went comically wide, “Is that what the fight was about?”

JD shrugged, “He saw us talking and took some offense.”

“Ugh, god I’m sorry. Heather made me go on a date with him and things got way out of hand. Now he thinks we’re dating.” She rolled her eyes, and he caught her glancing at that same corner of the store again.

“Are you okay?” He asked, turning to look at the still unoccupied spot.

Her eyes widened a little, but she was otherwise normal when she said, “Oh, yeah. This place just creeps me out a little, that’s all.”

“Really? I love this place.” As soon as he’d said it he realized how dumb it sounded, and wished he take the words back.

He was extremely relieved when she smiled, “No offense, but why?”

JD shifted, not sure how much of the story he actually wanted to tell, “I’ve moved around a lot for my dad’s work, but no matter where we end up, there’s always a 7/11.” He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling distinctly uncomfortable.

She tilted her head, considering, “I guess that would be comforting.”

He nodded, “That and it’s my main source of food.”

            Veronica’s face twisted into one of disgust, “It’s a miracle you don’t look like an orphaned street urchin from a Dickens novel.”

            “Half an orphan,” He corrected, then immediately regretted it. What was it about this girl that made him feel like sharing? Or talking at all for that matter. Realizing that she was uncomfortable, he tried to smooth things over, “My mom died years ago—“ He stopped, not sure where to go with that sentence.

            Veronica’s eyes were searching his, and she reached her hand up. For a moment, he thought she was going to push his hair out of his eyes, but she caught herself, awkwardly hiding the movement by tucking her hair behind her ear. He wasn’t sure if he was glad or not. A part of him really wished she’d touched him.

            “I’m sorry.” She murmured.

He just nodded, “Everyone’s life has got static. Or is yours perfect?” He quirked one eyebrow up as a challenge.

Her smile was back, “Actually it is, I’m about to go to the biggest party of the year with the most popular girl in school, and I’m dating the quarterback.” She rolled her eyes, the sarcasm falling from her lips with ease, giving him the sense that it was her preferred type of humor.

Then it hit him; she was going to a party with the most popular girl in school. Heather Chandler. He groaned inwardly, of course she was about to get into a car with the most likely possession candidate in town. He knew that it was only one possible situation, but he desperately wanted to keep this girl away from the dangers of his life.

“Don’t go to the party,” He blurted, “Stay here. With me.” He trailed off awkwardly.

Jesus, what was he thinking? Ignoring the fact that she already had a punch-happy boyfriend, this he could not bring people into his life. He couldn’t just hang out with people he met at school.

Rule Number One: Don’t get attached.

He was starting to worry that it might be too late.

Thankfully, Veronica assumed he was joking, “That would be a really swanky first date, but I really have to motor, Heather will kill me if I take too much longer in here.” _Heather might kill you anyway._ He didn’t say it.

Aloud he said, “Have a good time.”

They walked out together, and he stopped at his bike. As she continued to Heather’s bright red car, she turned and called, “Nice bike!”

From the front seat of her car, JD could see Heather Chandler glaring at him and he just had to pray that she wasn’t already possessed by something as Veronica climbed in and drove away. 


	4. Partying and Panicking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to everyone who has left kudos so far, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Writing from Veronica's perspective is hard for me so let me know how you think I did. Enjoy!

In the car on the way to Ram’s homecoming party, Veronica thought about JD. She ran back over her conversation with him and decided that he was definitely a little odd, but that made him _interesting_. Veronica would pick and interesting boy over someone like Kurt any day.

Heather did not agree.

“Jesus, Veronica what took you so long? Please tell me you didn’t spend that whole time talking to Red Dawn.” Heather was turned toward Veronica, paying absolutely no attention to the road.

“So what if I did?” Veronica shot back.

Heather rolled her eyes, “So, Kurt probably wouldn’t like his girlfriend flirting with the psycho that tried to kill him.”

“I’m not Kurt’s girlfriend, and JD didn’t try to kill him. Ram and Kurt started that fight, JD just finished it.” Veronica used the car mirror to check her lipstick, not terribly invested in the conversation.

“Veronica, Jesse James will not be good for your reputation,” Heather insisted.

“Yeah, well me telling everyone you think you’re a witch won’t help yours, so where does that leave us?” Veronica didn’t _like_ blackmailing Heather with her darkest secret, but sometimes she really just needed to shut her up. Bringing up Heather’s witchcraft was pretty much the best way to do that.

“You wouldn’t tell anyone about that.”

Veronica raised her eyebrows, “Wouldn’t I?” She challenged.

Heather clenched her jaw, “No. Because then I could out you as whatever kind of freak you are, little miss talks-to-dead-people.”

“I think you’d need to know the word for what I am in order to do that.”

Heather scowled, “Fine, do whatever you want with psycho trench coat kid, just don’t break up with Kurt. I’ve worked too hard on your social status to let you throw it away now.”

Heaving a sigh, Veronica nodded, “Fine, but if things end up going somewhere with JD, I’m dropping Kurt.”

“Do what you want Sawyer, just don’t ruin tonight, this party is going to be so very.” With that, Heather pulled into Ram’s yard and parked.

When they walked in the party was already in full swing. Drunk teenagers were everywhere, grinding and thrashing to music that was just a little too loud. Veronica let herself be swallowed by the crush of it.

Kurt appeared at her side moments later offering her a shot of something. She took it, coughing slightly. He smiled, “Seems like you’re looking to have fun tonight.”

_If I’m going to be spending tonight in your company, I’m going to need to be drunk._

“Yeah, it looks like a great party!” Kurt handed her another shot and she downed that one as fast as the first. When he handed her two more, she did the same thing.

Four shots in as many minutes was not a wise decision for Veronica. The world had gone a bit spinny, and she found that it was necessary to lean against Kurt for support.

He smiled down at her, “So, you like to party, don’t you?”

Veronica wasn’t sure why Kurt was so happy about this, and also she thought that most of the time her answer would be ‘no, I don’t really’ but right now her she answered with an enthusiastic “Yes!”

Kurt beamed and wrapped his arm around her waist, guiding her through the crowds. Veronica didn’t really want to be walking with Kurt so she tried to slip away. He tightened his grip. She pulled away and stumbled, but kept herself upright enough to move into the crowd and get lost in the sea of bodies.

For once, Veronica was glad she was short, because it made it harder for Kurt to spot her in the crowd. She pushed her way through her classmates until she was outside. A girl walked by her holding a joint, and although she had never considered doing drugs before, Veronica grabbed it and took a long hit.

She started coughing pretty much immediately, and the girl took her joint back and wandered away. Veronica thought about following her but decided against it when she saw Ram harassing Heather Duke.

She walked over to them and called, “Hey, Ram I just saw some freshmen sneaking over the fence by the pool, you may want to deal with them.”

Ram took the bait and ran off towards the far end side of the pool. Veronica turned to Heather, “Hey, are you alright.”

She glared at Veronica, “I didn’t need your help. You should go find Kurt, I think he was looking for you.”

Veronica sighed; she was getting pretty tired of people wanting her to be around Kurt. She turned away from Heather and left to find more shots. She didn’t think she’d had enough alcohol to have fun yet.

As she got drunker, Veronica could feel her connection with the spirit world wavering a little. Normally, she always had some kind of sense of it, like when you know someone is standing behind you without turning to look. It felt strange not to have her awareness, and that made her nervous, but she couldn’t show any of these things. Right now, her whole job was to be a normal teenager at the best party of the year. She took another shot to force herself to forget the feeling that something was very, very wrong.

It didn’t take Kurt long to catch up to her. It was his best friend’s house and he probably knew it as well as he knew his own, which put Veronica at a disadvantage for hiding from him. Kurt dragged her out to the dance floor and Veronica pretended to ignore his hands on her hips and ass as she moved to the beat.

The shots were really starting to catch up with her and she felt very dizzy and disoriented.

She pulled away from Kurt and staggered over to the edge of the dance floor. Once she got there, she felt one of Kurt’s large arms wrapping around her waist, “Hey, Ronica, are you okay?” She was touched by his concern and shook her head, “Okay, come with me, we’ll go upstairs so you can sit down for a minute.”

In the back of her mind, Veronica knew this was probably a bad idea, but she didn’t struggle when Kurt led her inside and upstairs to Ram’s parents’ room. She sat down on the bed, which wiggled underneath her. The motion made her dizziness even worse. Fucking waterbeds.

Kurt closed the door and came to sit next to her, placing one heavy hand on her knee. Veronica tried to scoot away, but his grip tightened around her leg, “Come on, Veronica. I know all the other Heathers aren’t this uptight.”

He closed whatever distance was left between them and placed one slimy kiss after another onto her neck. His hands slid up to grip her shirt, pulling it out of her waistband. Feeling truly nauseous now, Veronica squirmed away and forced herself to stand up.

The room spun, and she almost fell over, but she caught herself. She didn’t know how exactly to get out of this situation so she fell on the speech they’d all had to practice in health class, “Gee Kurt, I had a really nice time tonight, but—“

“Veronica sit down, relax, let yourself have fun for once,” Kurt smirked, “I know deep down you want to be dirty.”

Veronica shuddered and choked back the urge to vomit. Kurt didn’t deserve her fucking speech. She turned around and fled.

She knew if she stayed she would just spend the rest of the night trying to dodge Kurt so she decided to go home. Fighting her way through the crowd took longer than she thought it would, and Heather Chandler caught her before she got to the door.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Heather spat, “Kurt says you’re being a real tease.”

Veronica tried to focus on Heather’s face but there was something wrong with her eyes and they wouldn’t fixate on any one point, “Heather I feel really sick so I’m just going to go home.”

“Like hell you are! This is the most important party of the year, all the Heathers have to be here.” Heather crossed her arms and glared at Veronica.

“Fine. Then I’m resigning my commission with the lip gloss Gestapo and returning to civilian life. Just let me go.” She didn’t know where her stubbornness was coming from, but all she wanted was to leave before she puked.

“That’s not how it works,” Heather growled, “You don’t get to just leave. If you leave here now, you won’t just be a nobody, you’ll be an ex-somebody.”

Veronica didn’t have a chance to think her options over.

She vomited directly onto the front of Heather’s red dress.

“I raised you up from nothing!” Heather hissed, “I made you what you are you creepy bitch, and this is my thanks? I got paid in puke!”

Heather was really screeching, but Veronica was absolutely done with high school, parties, and Heathers, “Lick it up, witch. Lick it up.” And with that she turned and walked out of Ram’s house

            Wandering down the road, Veronica wondered if she would regret her actions. Right now she was too drunk to really care about anything.

Veronica reached tentatively into the spirit world to see if alcohol removed her abilities entirely, but found that if she concentrated very hard, she could still slip her hand into the otherworld. Though she didn’t have any reason to access it, she was glad she could still touch the spirit world right now. The dark, empty streets of Sherwood creeped her out.

The feeling intensified as she walked. Soon her whole body was covered in goosebumps and her hands were curled into fists. Something was very wrong.

She started to run, and the streets of her hometown blurred together into a confusing mass. As she ran she became certain: something was following her.

The alcohol dulled her awareness, but she could sense that some kind of otherworldly being was tailing her, and gaining ground. Veronica regretted all the times she had forged a doctors note to get out of gym, she couldn’t keep running for long.

Finally, she gave up and turned to face the thing that was following her.

It was like nothing she’d ever seen.

Veronica was used to ghosts. She saw them every day; they didn’t frighten her anymore than an average stranger in the grocery store would. This thing was different. Though it was still several yards away she could feel the evil energy rolling off of it in waves. It didn’t even look like it had ever been human. It was made of smoke and sinew, twisted and bent into a shape that was humanoid in the most horrifying way it could be.

Taking a deep breath, Veronica summoned as much strength as she could muster and spoke to it, “You are not welcome here. Return to the realm in which you belong. You are not welcome here!” Her grandmother had taught her the best ways to banish ghosts, and they had never failed her, but they were failing her now. The creature barely paused.

“Go from this place. You do not belong here!” She’d never had a spirit ignore her like this. The fear and confusion mixed together and scattered whatever strength she had in her. It was impossible to banish a spirit unless you were very determined to do so. Veronica turned and ran.

She didn’t make it far before realizing that you can’t really outrun a ghost. She looked around her in a panic, praying that she might find somewhere to hide.

She spotted a familiar motorcycle in a nearby driveway.

_This could go wrong in so many ways._

_This is the only option._

She dashed for the house and began to scramble up the tree growing alongside it. She reached a second floor window and peered in. She could just barely make out a tall figure sleeping on the floor.

Veronica could feel the spirit draw closer. The tree shuddered and shook as it began to ascend after her.

Now truly terrified, she pushed on the window. Locked. Thrusting her hand into the spirit world, she accessed one of the few objects she kept hidden there. Digging the knife into the window frame, she snapped the lock off.

Desperately, she jerked the window open and heaved herself into the room. Before she could make it all the way in, she felt the ghost’s ice cold claws seize her ankle.


	5. Caring

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM BACK! I have loved reading all these comments and I've appreciated all the love and support so much. This chapter is dedicated to Brad from the apple store because he saved my computer and all of my files (including this chapter and all my grad school applications) so he's my fave right now. I hope you like this and I promise the next chapter won't take a full week to be posted. Enjoy!

 

 

JD jerked violently awake when his window opened. He reached for his gun and held it steady, aimed at the intruder, but jerked back when he realized it was Veronica, and she was being pulled back by something he couldn’t see.

He jumped forward and grabbed her under the arms, pulling with all his strength until she was in his room. She turned to face the window, her eyes were trained on something, he couldn’t see. He moved to try to shut the window but it was stuck or something. No matter how hard he pushed the damn thing wouldn’t close. Veronica pulled him back with a tight grip on his hand and shouted, “Relinquo Victus!”

JD felt a strange calm descend over the room, and knew that whatever presence had been with them was gone now.

The silence stretched on as they continued to stare at the window.

Finally he broke whatever spell they were under, “So, um… what are you doing in my room?”

She started laughing, and it took him a minute to realize that she was also shaking and possibly a little hysterical. She was still clinging to his hand, so he led her over to his mattress and grabbed his discarded coat. He tucked it securely around her shoulders and her laughter turned into hiccups and eventually died down as she began to regain control of herself.

After a minute, the continued silence began to become awkward. She played with a loose thread on his coat, refusing to make eye contact. JD didn’t know how to start this conversation, but he knew they definitely needed to have it.

As he was mustering up the courage to speak, she finally looked up, “Sorry about, you know, breaking in. I’ve never seen anything like that and it freaked me out, but I didn’t mean to put you in danger.”

He actually almost laughed at that, whatever had been chasing her was hardly the most dangerous thing he’d ever encountered. Impulsively he reached up and pushed some of her wild hair out of her face, “It’s alright.” She leaned into his hand and they sat frozen for a minute before he pulled back.

He finally found the courage to ask her the question that was on his mind, “So… when you say you’ve never _seen_ anything like it, does that mean you actually _saw_ it?”

She met his eyes for a split second, then looked back down at her hands folded into her lap, “Yeah. I can see them. Ghosts, I mean. I see ghosts.”

 “That’s incredible!” He breathed, staring at her in astonishment. He’d heard of mediums, but every single one he’d encountered had been a fraud, he’d almost stopped believing in them.

She met his gaze at last, hope spreading across her features, “You actually believe me?”

 JD cleared his throat, suddenly uncomfortable. He knew he had to tell her his secret; she’d told hers and it was only fair. The idea of doing so made his stomach twist.

            _Rule Number One, Jason, don’t tell anyone what we really do._

Shoving his fathers voice to the back of his head, JD said, “Yeah. I hunt ghosts. Me and my dad, that’s why we travel around so much. He gets rid of haunted buildings and I try to track down loose spirits. So I know some stuff about them, I’ve even heard of people like you.”

She nodded, “Wow. I didn’t know anyone did that. I’m not even sure I know what a loose spirit even is.”

  JD mulled this over for a second, trying to figure out a good explanation, “Have you seen _Poltergeist_?” She nodded, so he continued, “It’s a lot like that. Some souls fucked up so bad when they were alive that they refuse to move on and face the consequences. They continue existing and doing more terrible shit to the living, usually by possessing people, but some can interact with the physical world enough to do some damage.”

Veronica nodded and considered this, “I’ve never met a ghost like that. All the ones I’ve ever seen have just been bored, milling around on this plane because it’s familiar.”

 “Those don’t sound so bad.” JD didn’t bother telling her about the things he’d seen ghosts do; it would only scare her.

“We don’t have any of the other kind here, or at least we didn’t. I would have known about them. I felt that thing coming from blocks away, and that’s when I’m drunk. If I was sober, it never would have been able to come near me.” JD thought about turning on the light, he could barely see her in the pale moonlight and he found that he really wanted to be able to look into her eyes.

Shrugging off these very against the rules thoughts, he smirked at her, “You warded it off pretty well, what did you say? I didn’t realize Westerburg taught Latin.”

She ducked her head and he wondered if she was blushing, “Westerburg doesn’t offer Latin. I said ‘leave loser’.” When he snorted she was quick to add, “It doesn’t really matter what you say. It’s about the intent behind the words.”

 “Okay, so why use Latin at all then?” He asked, genuinely curious. He had never tried to ward anything with spoken words, preferring carved symbols for protection.

 She shrugged, “Everything sounds stronger and more important in Latin, I thought it might work when my usual phrase didn’t.”

"You’re pretty incredible.” The words came out of his mouth without his permission and he wished there was a way to call them back in.

She tilted her head, and he could barely see the outline of her smile, “Thanks. You’re beautiful.” She slapped a hand over her mouth, but he’d already heard the words.

 JD cleared his throat, uncomfortable with compliments of any kind, and tried to think of something to say that would clear up the awkwardness in the air.

She beat him to it, changing the subject, “That thing can get back in, we should do something to—“

He cut her off, “It can’t. The window is warded, so is most of the house. You’re safe here, I promise.” JD wasn’t sure why it mattered so much that she knew she was safe with him, but he knew that it did.

“How did you ward it? I know there are some plants and stuff…” She trailed off, and he wondered how a medium could know so little about basic protection against ghosts.

 “I used a symbol that protects against evil and ill-will. It’s carved into the window, what you said about intent is true with those too; you have to mean it.” He didn’t tell her that he used the diamond from his mother’s engagement ring to carve it, because using something with that kind of emotional strength helped with solidify the ward.

Veronica nodded, taking this in, “There’s probably a lot more about this in my grandma Sawyer’s diaries. They taught me everything I know about ghosts.”

JD didn’t mention that it didn’t seem like she knew that much about ghosts. Instead, he said, “So if you don’t hunt ghosts, what do you do with them?” Because he couldn’t see ghosts, and had never interacted with any spirit that wasn’t evil, he honestly had no idea how you would interact with them.

Veronica raised one shoulder in a halfhearted shrug, “I try to avoid them mostly, but sometimes they come up to me to tell me things. It’s how I know everyone’s secrets; ghosts love to gossip.” She laughed a little, “Sometimes I send them for specific information, like today when I wanted to figure out your name.”

He was flattered that she’d gone to so much effort, “Do you ask them stuff about being dead?”

Veronica shuddered visibly, “No. Like I said, I try to avoid them. It’s a lot easier to pretend to be normal if you mostly are.”

JD couldn’t hold in a derisive snort, “So you waste an opportunity to find out about life after death so you can fit it with the Heathers better?”

“No!” She narrowed her dark eyes; “I just haven’t really seen the point of trying to use my abilities for anything more. Besides, I won’t be hanging out with the Heathers anymore. I pissed off Chandler at the party so she’s going to ruin my life on Monday.” He could tell Veronica was attempting to sound casual, but her voice cracked towards the end of the sentence.

 JD didn’t know what to say, but he didn’t like that she was sad, so he reached out and held her hand. It must have been the wrong thing to do because she started crying for real.

 “I don’t have any friends. The only real friend I ever had was Betty Finn and she moved away. I only blackmailed Heather so I wouldn’t have to be alone, and see how well _that_ worked out.”

JD stroked her hand awkwardly, not sure what to do. The last time he remembered crying was just after his mother died, and his father had put a stop to it swiftly and sharply.

Veronica eventually got ahold of herself and took her hand back so she could fix her hair. When she was fully collected she looked up at him, “I made you really uncomfortable there, didn’t I?”

He was hoping she hadn’t noticed. Of course she had though, eyes like hers didn’t miss things. “I don’t really do… feelings,” He said, not sure how to explain the many reasons why this was the case.

“Bullshit.”

JD gaped at her, then rushed into his explanation without thinking, “It’s safer to just be numb to it all. The world is shit no matter how we react, so I just don’t react.” _And that’s not even talking about all the rules I’d be breaking._ But the rules were starting to matter less and less. Veronica had shattered all of them when she’d come through his window.

“That’s bullshit,” She repeated. “You aren’t numb. You care.” She leaned closer to him, and he realized how little space was left between them. “I think you care a lot.”

 JD swallowed hard. He could feel the warmth coming off of Veronica’s skin; he could smell her softly floral shampoo. She moved even closer and rested her forehead against his, “I can prove it.”

She kissed him.

He melted.

Some small part of his brain conjured his dad’s voice, reminding him about all the rules this was breaking, but that part was obliterated when JD wound his hands into Veronica’s hair and kissed her back.

Her enthusiasm was intoxicating and he matched her move for move, feeding the fire between them.

 “God, You’re beautiful,” He breathed into her neck, pressing a kiss just below her earlobe.

Veronica stretched up to give him better access, and his coat fell off her shoulders, revealing her tight party dress. She tugged his shirt over his head and bent down to kiss his chest.

“Jesus Christ,” He muttered, not at all sure of how his life had brought him to this moment.  JD gripped Veronica’s hair again, dragging her up for another long, intense kiss. She pulled away gasping, her lips swollen and her eyes bright with passion. Slowly, as if she were trying not to startle a frightened animal, she slid the straps of her dress down her shoulders, revealing a tempting swath of skin.

 JD’s mouth went dry when she unhooked her bra, still staring at him. He slid one hand down her back and brought it around so he could brush his thumb over one exposed breast.

She shuddered and hummed, leaning into his hand and lifting her head up so she could kiss him again. JD pulled her against his chest and stood up so he could push her dress all the way off. He stepped back just a little so he could admire her.     She was so stunning he could barely look at her, and he fell to his knees so that he wouldn’t be looking down on someone so clearly above him. He kissed her just above her navel and looked up to smirk at her as she wound her hands into his hair, her breathing shallow and desperate. He bent his head lower, trailing kisses down her stomach until he stopped just above the waistband of her underwear.

 He looked at her, waiting for approval. Veronica nodded, then gasped when he pulled the small scrap of fabric down sharply and then swept her up and placed her on the mattress, positioning himself between her legs again. He brought his head down to her center to taste her. Her grip on his hair tightened painfully. He groaned and she writhed. Every small movement of his brought out an extreme reaction in her. He could have done this forever, just to see all the ways he could make her whimper, twitch, or moan.

She pulled him up so she could kiss him again, and when she tugged on him, he let her flip them so she was straddling his legs. She undid his belt much more slowly than necessary and the sense of need that had been building began to feel more like pain than pleasure. Still, he let her move at the pace she wanted, even though it felt like a decade went by while she was removing his pants.

Finally, he was as naked as she was. Veronica paused and he wondered if this was where the dream would end. She would tell him that she’d changed her mind, that she didn’t want this, didn’t like him, wanted to go home. It might kill him, but he would respect that. Everything that had happened tonight was already far more than he deserved.

Then she sank down on him and he forgot what thinking was, what time was, what everything was except for _her_ , because she was Veronica and he could never forget that.

She rode him, swirling her hips experimentally and pulling moans, curses, and adorations from his lips. When he finally managed to think enough to pick up on her rhythm he began to move in sync with her.

“Shit, yes JD, right there!” He had never thought his name was anything special until she said it like that.

He held on to her hips and tried to slow her down, because this wouldn’t last long enough if she kept going like this, but she wouldn’t be stopped.

  He held himself in check for exactly as long as it took her to finish. The sight of her sweaty, wild, and magnificent as she came apart was too much for him and he came undone.

She was curled up on his bare chest, wearing one of his t-shirts and he was considering whether she was more beautiful like this or, as she had been earlier, naked and powerful and unstoppable. JD decided that the answer was yes and moved on.

“So I was right,” She said, smiling up at him as she traced patterns onto his skin with her fingertips.

“Mhmm, about what?” He replied sleepily.

“You care.” She said simply, looking into his eyes.

 He gazed back at her, still in awe of how deep her eyes were. Veronica Sawyer looked into his eyes and could read his very soul.

JD took a deep breath. He wanted to list off all of the things he cared about, wanted to tell her everything that had ever hurt him, every bad thing he had done in his life so that she could absolve him. Instead, he just said, ““Yeah. I do.”

_I care about you. Far more than I should._

_Far more than it’s safe to._


	6. Popcorn and Potions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! This chapter is dedicated to Ishmael_Autolycus and Desmayada because I really love answering questions about my works and about this universe so your comments made me super happy. The plot really picks up in this chapter so get ready! Enjoy!

            Veronica really could not believe she had done that.

            She had always been the kind of person that pursued what she wanted, but boldness like what she’d displayed earlier was unheard of.

            Now, she was curled up in bed with Jason Dean who was, apparently, a ghost hunter.

            “So, how did you find out about your abilities?”

            A ghost hunter with a lot of questions.

            Veronica sighed, “I was about eight or nine I think. Old enough to realize that my ‘imaginary friends’ weren’t actually imaginary. Not long after that my Grandma Sawyer showed up to tell me that what they really were. She told me to keep it a secret, and she popped up again when I was twelve to tell me where her diaries were, then she moved on.”

            JD nodded, “Does that happen a lot? Moving on?” Talking about ghosts made her a little uncomfortable. She’d been hiding her abilities for almost ten years, talking about them like they were normal was new territory for her. Still, once she got used to it, it would be nice to be able to actually tell someone about all the ghosts in the halls of her high school.

            “Sometimes. The ghosts that hang around here and in the spirit world that I can access choose not to move on, mostly because they don’t know what’s next. Sometimes the curiosity gets the best of them and they move on. Other times… well there are some ghosts that have been here for a _long_ time judging by their clothes.”

            While she was talking, JD stared intently at her, she wondered when the last time he’d talked this much to anyone.

Unfortunately for him, she wasn’t going to sit around and let him ask all the questions, “Why was that thing after me?” She was intentionally staying up in the hopes of avoiding nightmares about the thing that had chased her, and he was unquestioningly obliging. Veronica assumed he had nightmares of his own to avoid.

            “I don’t know. I can’t see them, remember? Unless it’s inhabiting a body I have no way of interacting with spirits.” He didn’t sound terribly bitter about it, but Veronica couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be to dedicate your life to hunting down something that you couldn’t see.

            Tentatively, she voiced a thought that had been worrying her since she had stopped losing herself in him, “Was it trying to possess me? Is that what it wanted?”

            JD ran a comforting hand through her hair, “I doubt it. Ghosts tend to seek out people who are angry or bitter, which I don’t think you are.”

            Veronica shook her head and nestled in closer to him, “I try to be a good person, I guess, but it’s high school; everyone is angry. And I was especially pissed off right then.”

            He still didn’t look convinced, “Spirits are also limited by the physical strength of the bodies they possess, they usually go for guys and especially athletes. They might pick a girl if she had special influence or power. As far as I’ve been able to tell, their goal is always to cause as much pain and destruction as they can before they get bored and move on to another location.” Veronica could hear the edge in his voice, a poorly concealed rage that had grown out of pain. She wasn’t brave enough to ask where it had come from.

            “I’m not really any of those things, so why would it want me? Because I know it wanted me. It was trying to drag me out of the window,” Veronica’s breathing accelerated as the memory of that thing’s hand on her leg gripped her. JD’s arms came around her and she leaned into him, needing to borrow some of his strength. “I can’t believe this is my life.”

            He whispered comforting words into her hair, but she could see the fear in his eyes. There was something he wasn’t saying.

            “JD, what are you thinking about?” As scared as Veronica was, she needed to know the whole situation. She could only handle a problem she understood.

            “I don’t want to scare you, Veronica.” His voice was serious, but his eyes were soft.

            She appreciated his concern, but you didn’t get to run with Heather Chandler by being soft, and she knew how to be strong when she needed to. She was Veronica Sawyer, she was a medium, from a long line of powerful women, and she could face anything.

            “Tell me.” No one smart would argue with that tone.

            JD was smart. “I think it probably wanted to kill you.”

            Veronica caught her breath sharply, but kept her expression mostly neutral. She could be strong.

            “You can see and sense them, that makes you a threat.” He paused, then pressed on, still holding her as if he could keep them out with his strength alone, “They’ll probably keep coming.”

            Veronica sighed, it was all a little too much to fully process. “Jesus. I can’t believe this is my life now, last week I was shopping with the Heathers, now I’m hiding from ghosts with the new kid everyone thinks is a psycho.”

            She looked up in time to see him almost smile, “What’s weirder, me or the ghosts?”

            Veronica laughed, “Definitely you.”

He bent down to kiss her and she let herself get lost in it. She brushed her fingers across his jaw, memorizing his face with her eyes closed as his mouth moved on hers. He pushed her hair out of her face and ran his fingers through it, deepening the kiss. They were already pressed against each other, but Veronica felt that he was still too far away. She swung her leg over so she was straddling his lap, barely breaking the kiss to do so.

He slid his hands down and rested them on her hips, not pushing the kiss into anything more. He broke away abruptly when Veronica’s stomach growled demandingly. JD laughed as she hid her blushing face in his shoulder.

“Do you want something to eat?” He asked, trying not to sound like he was teasing her, though he couldn’t keep the hint of laughter out of his voice.

She groaned, still hiding, “It’s been a long time since I ate, and I had all that alcohol,” Veronica finally looked into his eyes, which were bright with mirth, and grudgingly said, “Yeah, if you’re offering. Some food would be really nice.”

He leaned in and kissed her forehead, easily lifting her off of his lap and setting her on the bed, “Stay here and stay quiet, I’ll be right back.

She nodded and watched him tug his boxers back on before he slipped out the door.

When he returned a few minutes later he was holding popcorn and wearing a slightly apologetic look, “It’s all we had.”

Veronica beamed, “It’s perfect!” She grabbed a large handful before he even sat down.

Laughing at her enthusiasm, he tossed a single piece in the air and caught it in his mouth.

“Show off,” She muttered.

“What, you can’t do that?” He said with a smirk. He tossed a piece at her and she reached to catch it, but it bounced off her teeth and landed in her lap. She glared at it. He smirked at her, “Those of us without supernatural abilities have to make do with other types of talent.”

She just rolled her eyes and ate another handful of popcorn the normal way.

Strangely enough, this was turning into one of the more normal nights she’d had since the beginning of school. Hanging out and eating popcorn, teasing each other and telling shitty jokes was fun and easy. The world (and every scary thing in it) was locked outside and Veronica and JD were safe and happy in here.

“So,” JD said around a mouthful of popcorn, “What were you looking at earlier in the 7/11? Is it haunted?”

“A homeless guy overdosed behind the building about a year ago. He still hangs around,” Veronica explained.

JD shuddered, “I just got a disturbing glimpse into my future.”

Veronica hoped he was joking, but something about the tense way he glanced at the door whenever they laughed a little too loudly told her that his life was pretty fucked up. Knowing that he’d been hunting ghosts since he was a kid clarified some things, but a lot about him was still a mystery. For that night though, she decided not to ask. There would be time to get through all of his walls and figure out what was really going on with him.

She made some vague joke to lighten the mood, and the moment slipped away.

They fell asleep together on his mattress on the floor, curled up under a moth-eaten wool blanket, stealing warmth from each other. JD kept his arms wrapped around her, holding her close even after he’d fallen asleep. She didn’t try to escape; it was nice to feel protected for a change, like for once she wouldn’t have to fight her battles alone.

 

She awoke with a start hours later, aware that something was wrong. Even after she had gotten over the confusion of waking up in an unfamiliar room, something still felt strange.

“Hello, slut.” _What the hell?_ Veronica turned around and saw the absolute last person she wanted to speak to right now.

“Heather, how did you get in here?” That was just one of several questions Veronica had for her, but it was the only one she could articulate.

Heather smiled, “I’m like oxygen, I’m everywhere.” She tossed her perfect blonde curls, “Really, Veronica, sleeping with psycho trench coat kid? God, I would crucify you for this, but lucky for you I’ll be out of commission for a bit.”

Veronica’s brain was still foggy, but she was aware enough to realize that she was technically still asleep, and Heather had somehow managed to astral project into her dreams. That didn’t mean anything she was saying made any sense though.

“Out of commission? What does that mean?”

Heather rolled her eyes as if Veronica was being incredibly dim, “There’s some serious shit coming to Sherwood, I don’t want to deal with it, so I’m out, I just wanted to make sure there was someone around to find my body.”

“Find your body? Heather, what are you talking about?” Veronica was starting to really panic now.

“Just a little potion I cooked up. It’ll be so _very.”_ The word echoed in Veronica’s head as Heather and the dream evaporated.

Veronica sat up sharply and shook JD awake. He murmured a groggy ‘what?’ while she found her clothes and started getting dressed.

She nudged him again, “JD, wake up. We need to go to Heather’s.”

Finally, his eyes opened a little, “Why? I thought you said you were done with Heather.”

Veronica rolled her eyes, “Something’s wrong. I had a weird dream and I think Heather might be in danger so we need to get to her house.”

That got his attention for real and he was up and dressed in seconds, suddenly fully awake. He grabbed a gun and a black duffel bag that were sitting next to his mattress and turned to her, ready to leave.

She raised her eyebrows at the weapon, sure she had the knife she stored in the spirit world for emergencies, but guns were different. JD just shrugged, “We don’t know what we’re going into, it’s best to be prepared.” It didn’t occur to Veronica at the moment to ask how he expected to use a gun against a ghost.

 

Heather’s house was eerily quiet when they got there. The red accessories looked like bloodstains and every creak of the floorboards made Veronica jump. JD was steadier. He looked cool and confident as he made his way cautiously from room to room, his gun in his hand at his side.

The kitchen was a disaster, it looked like someone had uprooted half the garden and thrown it across the counters. Sitting prominently on the island in the center of the room was a bottle of drain cleaner.

Veronica felt queasy, and their slow pace was driving her mad. When she saw that bottle on the counter her patience snapped and she dashed up the stairs to Heather’s room with JD at her heels.

They arrived just in time to see the blonde hold up a glass of frighteningly blue liquid. She raised it like she was toasting them, “Good luck, losers.”

Then she downed the whole thing.

She choked, staggered a couple steps, and then fell through her glass coffee table, shattering it.

“Oh my god.” Veronica whispered, “She’s dead. She was my best friend.”

“And your worst enemy,” JD pointed out unhelpfully, moving to check Heather’s pulse. He pulled back sharply a moment later, “She’s not dead!”

Veronica dropped to her knees next to him, “But, the drain cleaner… that shit should kill her… I don’t—“

JD cut her off and held out the glass, “It doesn’t smell like drain cleaner. I don’t know what she drank, but it looks like it just knocked her out.”

“She said she was making a potion… Oh my god I’m an idiot.” Veronica stared at the unconscious body of her friend, “She’s a witch. She must’ve made some kind of potion to knock herself out. I have no idea why though.”

“Heather’s a witch?” JD asked, his eyes held that same weird intensity she’d seen last night, like he was thinking about something much different than what he was talking about.

Veronica nodded, “I found that out and used it to blackmail her into letting me sit with her at lunch. Eventually she sort of caught on to what I can do. As far as I know though, she’s pretty bad at it, she’s never casted a spell or anything.”

“There are different types of witches, she might just be better at potions, or maybe she got lucky this time.” Veronica gave him a questioning look, sure he was a ghost hunter, but that doesn’t mean he automatically knows about witchcraft too.

He looked away, avoiding her eyes, “My mom was a witch.” He didn’t elaborate, and she didn’t ask him to—it was obvious that he didn’t talk about his mother.

After a minute of silence, Veronica stood up, “We need to call an ambulance.” She moved toward the phone, but JD grabbed her, a panicked look in his eyes.

“You can’t!” He looked truly frightened, certainly more than he had last night when he’d saved her from that thing. She wondered what could possibly be awful enough to scare him. “Veronica, this can’t be tied to me—to either of us—it’ll raise too many questions. We need to cover this up.”

He was so worried she didn’t even try to argue with him, “Okay, what do we do?” She was still shaking from the shock of thinking Heather was dead, and internally she was freaking out a lot, but she tried to at least pretend to have her head on straight for him.

“We make it look like a suicide. Grab the drain cleaner, we’ll make it look like she actually drank that.” He looked around the room frantically, “Damn I wish we could write a note. No one would ask questions if there was a note.”

Veronica didn’t know what possessed her to say, “I can fake her handwriting.”

It wasn’t a lie, Veronica could forge notes pretty well, but she hadn’t done it in a while. She and Betty used to do it for fun and occasionally to skip class to see a movie, but this wasn’t like that. This was illegal.

But JD’s eyes lit up, and she knew she couldn’t back down now. He handed her a pen and paper, “Think hard, what would she say to a cold, uncaring world in her last moments?”

“Okay, what about, ‘You might think what I’ve done is shocking, but to me, suicide is the only answer to the myriad of problems life has given me. People think that just because you’re beautiful and popular, your life is perfect. No one understood that I was suffering too. I die knowing that no one knew the real me.’” She paused and looked at JD for approval, but he wasn't the one to reply.

“Jesus, you’re making me sound like Air Supply!”

_Oh Shit._


	7. Seeing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could dedicate this chapter to SO MANY PEOPLE, honestly I don't even want to choose. Shout out to KateTGP, Desmayada, MyriadIdeas, and Xanthera for their awesome, insightful, and inspiring comments I love you all so so much. I also want to give a shoutout to all of my followers on tumblr, you are few but wonderful, and I'm so glad to have you! Enjoy!

Veronica yelped loudly and dropped the surprisingly well-crafted note, turning towards Heather’s empty bed.

  She turned to look at JD, her eyes wide and alarmed. He followed her gaze to the bed, but saw nothing unusual.

 It wasn’t until Veronica spoke to the empty space that JD realized what had happened, “Heather, what the fuck did you do?”

Heather Chandler was a fucking ghost.

A ghost whose body was still technically alive, somehow.

Veronica was quiet for a while—ostensibly listening to Heather’s reply—before she turned to JD, “That thing that chased me last night found Heather after we scared it off. She had her own protections but she didn’t think they’d hold against what’s coming, so once she got rid of it, she found a potion that would protect her from possession,” Veronica turned to glare at the space that Heather probably occupied, “Unfortunately, one of the side effects of said potion is being comatose and only existing as a ghost.”

There was a lot about that speech that JD would need time to analyze later, but for that moment he forced himself to focus on the most important part, “What’s coming?”

“She didn’t say.” Veronica said.

JD groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose, then turned toward the bed, “Heather, what is coming? This is really important.”

 Veronica snorted, and he turned to her, “She’s over there.” She said, pointing helpfully in the direction of the window.

“Well I wouldn’t know that because I. Can’t. See. Her.” JD shot back tensely.

 Veronica’s eyes lit up, “I know a way you could see her! I’m so sorry I forgot about it, obviously I’ve never had to use it…. We need to go to my house.”

            “We need to finish staging the suicide. Put the note on the desk, I’ll be right back.” He went to the kitchen and grabbed the drain cleaner. It would conceal any trace of whatever Heather had really ingested, and it would explain her coma well enough.

It was the best he could do in a pinch.

When he got back upstairs, Veronica was sitting at Heather’s desk with her head between her hands, panicking.

“Veronica…” He didn’t know what to say, he didn’t even know what had changed since he left to scare her like this.

She shook her head, “I’m fine.” Her voice a little too shrill but he didn’t press her.

He let her be for a moment while he poured some of the blue liquid into Heather’s cup and put it back in her hand. There. That would be good enough to fool the cops.

Having followed all the rules for the time being, JD went to comfort Veronica. He placed a hand on her shoulder, and was relieved when she didn’t shake him off. “Veronica, we need to get out of here. Heather’s parents will be home soon, they’ll take care of her.” She didn’t move, so as gently as he could, he pulled her up and led her out of Heather’s house. By the time they got to his bike, she moved on her own, climbing on behind him and holding on.

She directed him to her house. He parked his bike across the street and they climbed in through her bedroom window.

Veronica sat down on her bed, and looked up at him, those soulful eyes seemed to search him for something. He wished he could help her find it.

“Can you bring me that box on my desk?” When she spoke, it was almost startling because she’d been silent for so long, but he immediately went to do as she asked.

He retrieved an antique-looking carved wooden box from her cluttered desk and placed it in her lap. She lifted the lid and rooted around in it for a minute before she pulled out some kind of necklace.

She held it up for him to see, it was a round piece of glass hanging from a black silk cord, “A monocle?” He said skeptically.

“A spirit glass,” Veronica corrected, “If you’re wearing it around your neck you’ll be more sensitive to ghosts, holding it might make you able to see them. If you actually put it over your eye you’ll be able to see into the spirit world.”

Cautiously, he took the glass from her and hung the cord around his neck. His vision went strange and it felt like the floor shifted a little bit. Then he looked up and saw that there was a third person in the room with them.

Heather’s spirit was dressed as she had been when she’d downed the potion—she wore a silk robe and her thick blonde hair was tied up in a red scrunchie. She had her arms crossed over her chest and she appeared to be mouthing insults at him. “I can’t hear her.”

Veronica came to stand next to him, winding her fingers through his, “Concentrate hard. Open your mind and focus on connecting with the otherworld. You can do this.”

He tried to do as she instructed, and he knew it worked when he felt the floor tilt again and it was like someone had turned the volume up on a TV. Suddenly he could hear Heather talking.

He could _hear_ her.

He could _see_ her.

Without realizing it, Veronica had completely changed his life.

Speechless, he ignored Heather’s insults and turned to Veronica, pulling her into a tight hug. He pressed his lips into her hair, unable to find words to express how grateful he was. She hugged him back, then pulled away so she could push his hair out of his face. He gazed into her wide, dark eyes, surprised to find that his vision was blurred by tears for the first time in seven years.

“Gross.” Heather said from the corner of the room.

JD ignored her and finally found his voice, “I’ve been hunting them for so long, I’ve been chasing and fighting something that I couldn’t even see… Veronica, you changed all of that. Jesus, Veronica you changed everything.” He kissed her, trying to express everything he was feeling in that one gesture.

“Okay, fuck this I’m out of here.”

Veronica pulled away from JD and turned to Heather, who was just starting to fade into the spirit world.

“Heather wait! You still need to tell us what’s going on,” She insisted.

The ghost rolled her eyes, but she re rematerialized with her arms folded, glaring at the couple in front of her, “Fine, but I’m leaving the next time you get physical with Norman Bates.”

JD actually kind of admired Heather’s creativity when it came to mean nicknames. That last one was new for him, and after ten high schools, that was really saying something.

Heather continued, “So Sherwood is kind of a hotspot for ghost activity. Supposedly some places have a stronger connection to the spirit world than others. That makes this whole town full of powerful energy. Over the years, there have people who protected the town; witches like me, weirdoes like Veronica,”

“The word you’re looking for is medium,” Veronica snapped.

“Whatever. Anyway, they had all types of people who made sure the living were safe from the dead, and it worked. Sherwood has a lot of ghosts, but none of them are the evil kind.” She checked to make sure the other two were following and continued, “But something is changing. The defenses are weaker. I’ve been able to feel it for a while, but I didn’t know for sure until Ram’s party, when I saw that thing. If evil spirits can get into town now, then soon they’ll all be here.”

“So what happened to the defenses? Maybe we can strengthen them again somehow,” JD suggested. If it was some kind of ward, he and Heather could do something to fix it.

“No idea,” Heather answered unhelpfully, “My dad told me about the ward, and that I needed to fix it but he doesn’t know where it is. He said only the descendants of the people who put it there would know where exactly it was.”

Veronica picked up the box that had held the spirit glass and rifled through it. She pulled out a battered black book, “There might be something about it in here, it’s my grandmother’s diary. She lived in Sherwood her whole life, and she was a medium, maybe she knew about the ward.”

Heather’s perfectly plucked eyebrows shot up, “Maybe she was one of the ones who put it there.”

They all considered this in silence for a minute, before JD spoke, “We still need to deal with the spirit that’s already here. Like it or not, it’s out for blood, and it’ll be looking for someone to possess.” He glanced at Heather, “I thought it was going to be you, but you made that impossible, so who’s next?”

“How the fuck should I know?” Heather said, “Ghosts aren’t my thing.”

JD rolled his eyes, glancing at Veronica for support, but she just shrugged. He sighed, “It’ll be someone physically strong and angry or resentful. Know anyone that fits the bill?”

“Kurt or Ram?” Veronica suggested.

Heather looked up from examining her nails, “They aren’t smart enough to be angry or resentful, they’re just assholes for the fun of it.” She glanced at Veronica, “Plus Kurt comes from one of the old Sherwood families that set up the wards, that’s why I wanted you to get together.”

JD also looked at Veronica to ask whether that made any more sense to her than it did to him, but her face was painted in confusion. Heather sighed, “Veronica is a powerful medium, being close to powerful people can make regular people more sensitive. I thought that if Kurt fucked Veronica he might wake up with super powers or something.”

Veronica shuddered and leaned into JD, “I was never going to sleep with Kurt; I think he’s disgusting. Besides, I don’t think that’s true. JD seems normal.”

He nodded, though sex with Veronica had made him feel different—had made him feel good for the first time in years—he didn’t believe he’d gained any supernatural abilities.

Heather arched her brow,” Then how are we having this conversation? Spirit glasses can only do so much, but combine it with time spent in the presence of a medium and you made your very own psycho psychic. Congratulations.”

“JD, I had no idea. If I had known, I would have told you—“

He shrugged and cut off her frantic apology, “Even if you’d told me I wouldn’t have done anything differently. Last night was amazing and me being able to see them—even if it’s only when I have the glass—is going to be helpful.” He kissed her forehead, “I don’t regret anything.”

That earned him a smile, “Neither do I.” She nestled in closer to him and he draped his arm over her narrow shoulders.

“Okay, that’s it. I’m out. You two losers can deal with this on your own.”

Heather stood to leave but Veronica spoke up to stop her, “Heather, you have to help us!”

For the first time, Heather looked a little shaken, maybe even scared, “No, I don’t. And even if I did have to, I can’t. Like I said earlier, good luck. I’m going to go make sure someone found my body.” With that the ghost disappeared, leaving them completely alone.

“God, what is her damage?” Veronica muttered.

JD laughed, swears sounded a little funny coming from such a small, beautiful girl. “Do you surround yourself with messed up people on purpose?” He asked.

She shook her head, “Just my luck, I guess.” He smirked at her and she pulled him down so they were lying across her bed and she was leaning over him.

JD put one hand on the back of her head and pulled her into a kiss, and she smiled against his mouth. The last twelve hours had been wild, and he was still trying to wrap his head around the idea that Veronica actually wanted to be with him, but he could really get used to this.

But he couldn’t. Best-case scenario, they find the ward, fix it, and JD moves on without Bud ever even finding out about Veronica. Worst case, Bud takes care of the hotel and they move on before Veronica finds the ward and he leaves her alone to deal with it herself. Neither option was something that he wanted. He wished there was a world in which he could stay in Sherwood with Veronica and just be a normal high schooler like she was. But there wasn’t.

Veronica deepened the kiss and pulled him away from his dark thoughts. JD cupped her face in his hand, brushing one thumb across her jaw. She felt so delicate with his arms wrapped around her like this; it amazed him that she had so much power hidden just beneath the surface. Now that he knew she was sharing some of that power with him, he wished he could offer something in return, but he had nothing of value to offer.

_For what it’s worth, I’m yours Veronica Sawyer._

He thought about whispering the words to her, but he kept them to himself. Perhaps he didn’t love her yet, but he thought he would someday soon, and he was still reeling that he _could_ love anyone. Maybe he wasn’t as damaged as he’d always thought.

After making out on her bed for a while, Veronica pulled away, her lips were pink and swollen and her hair was wild. Breathlessly she said, “We should probably do some research…” She didn’t sound excited about it.

He smirked, “I don’t know, we killed Heather Chandler today. I think we should celebrate. Besides, we can always research later. We have all day.”

His practiced smirk morphed into a genuine smile when she reached up to kiss his jaw, “That works for me.”


	8. Heathers and Helplessness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to Ishmael_Autolycus whose clever comments have inspired me and helped helped me through writers block, I'm so grateful! Just so you all know, this chapter and the next one are from Veronica's perspective. I really wanted the next scene to be told from her pov but this chapter was getting long so I'm messing up the alternating pattern. Anyway, Enjoy!

Surprisingly, they did get some research done that day, although none of it was very enlightening. All they knew was that the ward was in an old building in Sherwood, though Grandma Sawyer had never said where it was. She had been alive for nearly a hundred years, and kept diaries for almost all of them. Combing through the vast amounts of writing was exhausting and often boring.

On Monday morning, Veronica looked around for JD, hoping to plan another time to get together— either as a date or for more research—but Heather McNamara and Heather Duke found her first.

They both looked sad and McNamara even looked like she had been crying.

“Veronica, did you hear about Heather?” Duke asked.

Veronica tried to play it cool, she couldn’t let on that she knew more about Heather’s situation than they did. “No, what happened? Is she sick or something?”

“Sort of. She’s in a coma, can you believe it?” Duke said, and Veronica wasn’t sure if she was happy or sad, or possibly just shocked.

“The worst part of it is that they’re only giving us an hour off,” McNamara added. “We should have been given the whole week.”

Veronica tried to school her face into something resembling surprise and sadness. Thankfully, the other two weren’t paying that much attention to her.

“The actual worst part is how it happened. Can you guess, Veronica?” Duke seemed to want a response so Veronica shook her head, and she continued, “She did it to _herself_. She drank some drain cleaner and apparently it’s a total miracle that she even survived.”

Veronica looked around, feeling her lies begin to swirl around her like a current, “Why would she do that?”

Strangely enough, Tracy—a random stoner Veronica had leant her notes to once—cut in before Heather could answer, “Sorry about your friend, I thought she was your usual airhead bitch, but I guess I was wrong.”

She wandered off, leaving the others to stare at her back in confusion. McNamara clarified what she’d been talking about, “She was trying to kill herself because she was depressed about being popular and stuff. It’s really tragic. They’re having a prayer service this afternoon and everything.”

“Wow.” It was all Veronica could think to say.

“Hey Veronica,” Duke said, “Do you think you could write us notes so we can skip gym?”

Veronica nodded, “Come see me after first and I’ll give them to you.”

The Heathers beamed and walked away arm in arm. Veronica couldn’t help but notice how much more relaxed they seemed without Heather around.

“What the fuck?” Veronica jumped a little and turned around, Heather Chandler was right behind her, glaring at her retreating friends, “They should be fucking sobbing! I’m their best friend!” She had her hands balled into fists and she looked absolutely livid.

Veronica ducked her head so no one would see her lips moving when she replied, “Maybe they needed a vacation from being your loyal followers.”

Heather rolled her eyes and followed as Veronica set off down the hall, “I came to school today so I could witness everyone talking about what a tragic waste of beauty it will be if I die. This is such shit!”

Veronica laughed but stopped quickly when she got an odd look from someone in the hallway. “Heather, everyone in this school thinks you’re a piranha, it shouldn’t shock you that they aren’t exactly devastated at the loss.”

She tossed her hair, “Well I don’t give a fuck anyway. Even comatose, I’m still the most popular girl at Westerburg.”

Veronica couldn’t argue with that, for the whole morning, Heather Chandler was all anyone could talk about. Even the teachers could be seen whispering between periods, talking about “Heather’s” note and how much they hoped she pulled through.

For the most part, Chandler stayed close to Veronica so she could listen to all of these conversations. Veronica was sure Heather was having the most interesting afterlife of any ghost she had ever met, and she wasn’t even technically dead.

Veronica’s notes did the trick and got her and the remaining two Heathers out of gym. They stayed in the locker room so they could talk, and—in Heather Duke’s case—eat.

God only knew where Duke had gotten the chicken wings, but she was eating them ravenously. Veronica raised a curious eyebrow, “Watch it, Heather, you might be digesting food.” Behind her sarcasm, Veronica was actually relieved. It had been a long time since she’d seen Duke a decent meal and keep it down. She’d been worried about her.

“Yeah Heather, where’s your urge to purge?” McNamara asked, looking up from the biology notes she was studying.

Duke beamed, “Fuck it!” She threw the finished chicken wing over her shoulder, hitting some sophomore squarely in the nose. The gesture gave Veronica an excuse to turn her head to look at the ghost standing beside her. Heather looked utterly stricken. Had she been corporeal, Veronica would have put a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder, but as it was she just gave her a small smile and turned back to the others.

It suddenly occurred to her that being dead for a little while might be good for Heather.

 

By the time lunch rolled around, Veronica was beginning to worry that she hadn’t seen JD. Of course, she didn’t share any classes with him so maybe it was a coincidence that they hadn’t run into each other. Still, she needed to talk to him about everything that had happened this weekend, and they needed to make a plan.

She was about to go off in search of him when Kurt sauntered up to her locker. “Hey babe, I just wanted to check and see how you’re doing. If you need to go somewhere to be alone and,” He winked at her, “ _Cry_ , just let me know.”

Veronica was very tempted to try to clarify what he meant by that. She really hoped he wasn’t using crying of all things, as a metaphor for sex, but decided asking would only encourage him. And encouraging him was the opposite of what she needed to do.

“Look, Kurt, I don’t really think I’m the girl for you, and I know you’re not the guy for me, so I think we should stop seeing each other.”

Kurt leaned in closer to her and she tried to back away, but she ran into her locker. He had her cornered. “Veronica, don’t be stupid. We’re perfect together. You’re hot and I’m on the football team.” He said this as if it were a law of nature that the two must go together. Veronica couldn’t follow his logic.

Around Kurt’s broad shoulder she spotted JD’s distinctive coat. He was glaring at the football player, but he paused long enough to give her a look that asked _Do you need my help?_ She shook her head slightly. The last thing she needed was for JD and Kurt to get into another fight. Instead, she glared at Kurt and said in her most authoritative, spirit-banishing voice. “I said I wasn’t interested, and I’m not. I’m not your girlfriend and I don’t want to be. Please leave me alone.”

With that, she ducked under Kurt’s arm and walked away briskly. JD joined her and she grabbed his hand. If nothing else, holding hands with the guy that had beat him up would give Kurt a clear message. Veronica Sawyer was done letting Heather pick her boyfriends.

Veronica led JD to the library, where they hid for the rest of the lunch period. They would have drawn too much attention sitting together and she couldn’t promise that the Heathers wouldn’t have found some way to drag her back to their table. This was better anyway because they got to be alone.

Or at least, they were alone, until a ghost decided to join them. JD had been flipping through a book and absently playing with Veronica’s hair, but he looked up when she nudged him and pointed at the translucent female figure.

Veronica had seen this girl before, but never spoken with her. She appeared to be about Veronica’s age and was probably recently deceased, based on her clothes. As always, Veronica was uncomfortable talking to ghosts.

JD was not. “Greetings and salutations,” He called, startling the spirit so much that she almost faded back into the otherworld.

When she realized that he was in fact talking to her, the ghost approached them cautiously. “Hi,” She said in breathy, uncertain voice.

Veronica wished she could ask JD what he thought he was doing, but she didn’t want to offend the ghost. Instead, she held out her hand, “I’m Veronica Sawyer, this is JD.”

The ghost looked at Veronica’s hand for a moment, and Veronica realized her mistake and dropped it awkwardly. Ghosts can’t shake hands. Despite Veronica’s faux pas, the spirit smiled, “I’m Martha Dunnstock. I used to go here.” The name sounded vaguely familiar to Veronica, but she couldn’t place where she’d heard it.

“When?” JD asked, looking genuinely curious.

“I died in nineteen eighty three, I was a senior.” Veronica suddenly remembered where she’d heard the name. Martha Dunnstock had jumped off the old mill bridge years ago. Since then, her name had occasionally come up at sleepovers; rumor had it that she haunted the halls of Westerburg trying to get revenge on the students who’d tormented her.

Veronica was a little startled to realize that it was partly true; Martha was haunting Westerburg, but she was hardly vengeful. Veronica just thought she seemed lonely.

“So,” Martha said, easing down to sit next to them, “You can see ghosts?”

JD smiled, “I just gained the ability, Veronica here is a natural; she’s been doing this for years.”

Martha nodded, “Everyone knows about Veronica Sawyer, you’re pretty popular among the ghosts.” She looked at Veronica shyly, “You listen to us.”

Veronica felt a stab of guilt. She listened to them so that she could cash in on their secrets, not because she was some kind of therapist for the spirits. She didn’t deserve their respect.

Heather Chandler stepped out of the spirit world to join them, barely even acknowledging Martha, as she said, “Have you found the ward yet? I’d like to get my body back sometime in the next decade please.”

“Maybe we’d find it sooner if you actually helped us,” Veronica snapped.

“Ugh, Veronica have a little sympathy for the dead, the afterlife is _so_ boring,” She turned and finally looked at the other ghost in the room, “Don’t you think so?”

Martha’s eyes had gone very wide and she began to stutter out a reply, but Heather cut her off, “Exactly. So go save the town so I can be a real girl again. I don’t want to end up like _her._ ” She was eyeing Martha critically, and Veronica’s heart broke seeing the look on the poor girl’s face. Heather must not have noticed it because she barreled on, “You know she killed herself because they used to call her Martha _Dumptruck._ ” Heather snorted, but Martha didn’t find it funny. Veronica could swear she heard a sob before the ghost managed to disappear.

JD looked furious, “Jesus Christ, Heather, could you not be a bitch for ten fucking seconds? That girl is dead because of people like you!”

Heather just rolled her eyes and vanished, clearly not interested in listening to JD’s criticism. Veronica kind of wished she could disappear too.

 

The afternoon flew by, Veronica and JD both decided to skip the prayer service for Heather—partially because they had work to do and also because they knew she would be fine.

Instead, they went to JD’s house. Veronica could tell he would have rather spent the afternoon at hers but her parents were home and they would have had a lot of questions that she didn’t want to deal with. JD didn’t tell her why his house was a bad idea so she assumed it was because it was messy or something, which she wouldn’t mind.

The house was kind of a mess. There were half unpacked boxes lying around, and it was only partly furnished. She and JD sat on the living room floor to flip through the diaries.

They read for the better part of an hour before JD set his book down, rubbing his eyes. “Do you keep one of these too?” He asked, gesturing to the journal he’d tossed aside.

Veronica nodded, “She told me I should, said that one day my thoughts would be important.”

“They are,” JD said, his quiet voice belied by his intense gaze. She shivered a little bit, no one had ever looked at her the way he did, and she really liked it.

She reached over and brushed a stray strand of hair out of his eyes. He caught her hand and held it against his cheek. Smiling just a little, he kissed her palm and released her hand, but he didn’t break eye contact.

The moment stretched on and on, until she caved and leaned in to kiss him. Before she could, an odd clicking sound startled her and she turned to find the source of it.

She found herself staring into the muzzle of a gun.

“Who the fuck is this.” The man holding the gun was an older, steelier version of JD, with eyes made of ice. Veronica thought about trying to stammer out a reply, but the question hadn’t been directed at her.

“Jesus, Dad, put that away!” Veronica could tell JD was trying to position himself in front of Veronica, but the man kept sidestepping so she was always the target. “Dad, Veronica is just helping me with something, it’s fine,” He looked at her with desperate eyes that seemed to be screaming at her to run.

“Does this little bitch know?” The man said, his deadly calm was slipping away into something angry and disturbing.

JD was still trying to placate him, “She’s a medium dad, she already knew. I swear I didn’t tell her anything!” He was afraid. Veronica could hardly believe there was something in the world that JD was afraid of, but he was clearly terrified right now. He turned to Veronica and snapped, “Get out,” before refocusing on his father.

 _His father._ Veronica couldn’t believe the two were related, despite the obvious physical similarities. JD’s eyes could never be that cold.

Veronica was still frozen in fear, but she jumped into action when JD shouted at her again, “Go! Veronica, run!”

Veronica hesitated for the barest fraction of a second, not wanting to leave JD behind, but she didn’t really think she could do anything to help. She sent him one last apologetic glance before she dashed out the back door.

When she got home she sank to the floor, sobbing and grabbed her diary. If nothing else it would clear her head.

_Dear Diary,_

_JD’s dad will not be speaking at our wedding,_

She couldn’t believe she found it in herself to be sarcastic at a time like this.

_Possibly because he’s psychotic and he should be in prison. I thought he was going to shoot me. Hell, I’m terrified that he shot JD as soon as I left. Oh god, what have I done, I never should have left him there. What will I do if something happens to him?_


	9. The Unimaginable and the Unfixable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has so much heavy stuff. I feel like I should trigger warning this whole thing because while I tried to avoid being too graphic, I really wanted to go all the way in showing the pain these characters are feeling. There are mentions of parental abuse, suicide, and rape, as well as some descriptions of illness and injuries. If you think these will be disturbing or triggering for you, but you'd like to stay with the story, please comment here or message me on Tumblr and I will give you all of the relevant plot information. I hope I did some small amount of justice to these heavy topics, and if you feel that I've mishandled them in some way, message me or comment and I will do my utmost to fix the issue. Thank you

Veronica couldn’t sit still for the rest of the afternoon. She fidgeted and twitched through dinner, unable to make small talk with her parents. She brushed off their concern when they tried to get her to open up.

They thought her agitation had to do with Heather’s “illness”.

As soon as she could, she escaped up to her room. Veronica tried hard to focus on Grandma Sawyer’s diaries, but she kept glancing at her phone as if she could will it to ring.

An hour passed and she tossed the diary at the wall in frustration. She couldn’t sit here and do nothing anymore. It was time to use her powers to do something good.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Veronica focused her energy and willed herself partway into the spirit world. “Heather? Martha? Someone? I need help,” She had never called for specific spirits before, and she wasn’t even sure she could. She called again after a few minutes, but there was no response. After a couple more minutes of waiting she gave up. They either couldn’t hear her or didn’t care.

For a moment, she considered leaving her body behind and stepping all the way into the spirit world so she could check on JD without his father seeing her, but there were too many risks.

She settled in to wait.

Veronica woke up confused, with a very sore neck. The noise that had roused her was coming from the window, and she cautiously went to check it out. Just in case, she took her knife from the spirit realm and kept it in hand as she approached the window.

A very bloody face stared back at her.

She flung the window open and helped her struggling boyfriend climb through.

In the bright light of her bedroom he looked even worse.

He leaned against her wall under the window, half of his face was so coated in blood she couldn’t even see where the actual injury was, and the way he was bent in on himself indicated that there was more damage hidden under his coat.

He looked at her with eyes that shone with either tears or delirium, she couldn’t tell, “I’m sorry. I didn’t have anywhere else…” He groaned a little, “You must hate me after today, god, I’m so sorry. I just… My dad…” He stopped there, and she was almost relieved. She didn’t want to know the details of what had been done to him. “I need a little help,” he finished lamely, and she knew how desperate he must be if he was asking for help.

Veronica helped him stand and brought him to the bed, he lay down, trying not to show how much pain he was in, but she heard every groan and felt them all like stabs in her gut.

When he was settled, she gently brushed her fingers over the side of his face that seemed relatively unharmed, “I don’t hate you,” She whispered tenderly, “I could _never_ hate you.”

There were definitely tears in his eyes when he mumbled, “Thank you, Veronica.”

She nodded in response, “I’m going to get some supplies, just stay here and stay quiet, okay?” He muttered something that sounded like agreement so she walked away.

She went to the kitchen to grab a bowl, and saw a familiar figure standing in her backyard.

She went outside to greet her friend’s ghost, “Heather, now isn’t a good time, what are you doing here?”

Heather ignored her, “You need some of those,” She pointed to a cluster of yellow flowers. “Arnica is good for bruises, so is chamomile, does your mom drink tea?”

Extremely confused but nonetheless willing to take advice, Veronica nodded, “Yeah there are some bags in the kitchen, she says they help her sleep.”

“She’s right, but if you get them wet and put them on a bruise, it goes away faster. You have a witch hazel tree back here too, geez your gardener isn’t fucking around with the protective plants.” Heather was wandering through the extensive garden in Veronica’s yard, apparently in awe.

            “It’s my grandmother’s garden. She loved taking care of it, even left my dad money so that he could hire someone to keep it alive for her. Apparently she thought I would like it.”

            Heather looked impressed, “This garden is a medium’s dream. All of these plants have either protective or medicinal properties. Your house is probably one of the safest places in all of Sherwood, aside from the wards.”

            Veronica had never really considered why ghosts didn’t come into her house, maybe it was due in part to them disliking the plants.

            Heather, on the other hand, seemed to be thriving. She even looked a little more solid out in the moonlight. She continued her perusal; occasionally stopping to point out a plant Veronica should get for JD. Eventually, She turned back to her friend, “So, have you found it yet?” She sounded more sincere than she had earlier, and Veronica realized for the first time how difficult this must be for her.

            Still, that didn’t give her the right to be a bitch about it. “Heather, I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re down a ghost hunter right now, so unless you want to step up and help, you need to stop whining about how long it’s taking.

            “I can’t help!” Heather snapped, turning her back on Veronica.

            “Can’t?” Veronica asked, from where she was standing, it looked a lot like ‘won’t’.

            “I’m not a good witch.” Heather said slowly.

            “Okay, so wicked witch of the west it up, I don’t care if you get a little bit dark,” Veronica encouraged. Maybe they needed a little evil to get them out of this mess.

            Heather shook her head, disturbing her permed hair, “No, I mean I suck at being a witch.” She took a deep breath, “My dad thought he was going to raise this all-powerful witch child and instead he got me. I can make plants grow slightly better than your average fertilizer, and I can occasionally make a potion that won’t kill you. That’s it. So, yeah, I don’t think I’ll be a lot of help.”

            Veronica thought she was seeing the real Heather for the first time ever. And it just so happened that this was the Heather she needed, “You can help me take care of JD.”

            Heather looked worried and more than a little self conscious, but she followed Veronica into the house and told her what to get from the kitchen.

            They returned to Veronica’s bedroom armed with a bowl of hot water, a mug with several chamomile tea bags, a washcloth, and a large bunch of arnica flowers. Veronica settled in next to JD to begin cleaning the wound above his eye. He winced slightly when she started, but didn’t pull away.

            Once his face was clean, she got a closer look at the cut. Heather leaned over her to look at it too, “It doesn’t need stiches, just put one of the wet tea bags over it to slow the bleeding.”

            Veronica nodded and did as she was told. Now it was time for the hard part. “JD, you need to sit up a little so we can get your shirt off. I need to see the rest of it.”

            He shook his head, his eyes were wide, “It’s alright. I was just worried about the bleeding. I’m fine.”

            Veronica wasn’t convinced. “What’s wrong? I can only help you if you tell me!” The whole situation was becoming extremely surreal, and yet stressful. She was keenly aware of the fact that doing something wrong could do a lot of damage.

            “It’s his shoulder, I think he doesn’t want to raise his arm.” Heather said, her head was tilted as she considered the injured boy on the bed. She addressed him instead of Veronica this time, “The shirt and coat need to come off, so either you’re helping us get them off or we’re cutting them. You choose.”

            JD managed to find the energy to roll his eyes at the ghost, “Fine.” He struggled into something approximating a sitting position and Veronica pulled his coat down. He gritted his teeth and exhaled hard, but he didn’t cry out.

            Then it was time for his shirt, and Veronica knew that would be harder. There was no way to avoid lifting his arms for this part. “Get me a sock or something to bite. I might scream and it’s better if your parents don’t catch me in here.” Veronica nodded and obediently went to get a pair of socks from her closet. He put them in his mouth and nodded.

            In one rapid motion, Veronica pulled his arm up and yanked the shirt off. He screamed, but her socks effectively muffled the sound. She was relieved when it was over.

            At least until she saw the bruises. “Oh my god,” She breathed, staring at his chest. It was completely transformed from how it had looked only yesterday. Back then; it had been sprinkled with scars and freckles, now it was mottled with dark, angry, fist-shaped splotches of purple and black. She mashed up the arnica flowers, added a little water, and smeared it across all of the bruises. Doing it made her choke and gag. She had to fight the urge to throw up.

            “I’m sorry,” He whispered, seeing her reaction.

            Veronica shook her head frantically, “No! It’s not that, I just… I let this happen to you. This is my fault.” She put her head in her hands and tried to fight back the tears.

            He reached up with his good hand, “It isn’t! I’m so glad you got out of there, I couldn’t risk you getting hurt,”

            “I’d like you both to get hurt if it’ll make you stop being gross,” Heather commented from the corner. They ignored her, and Veronica leaned down to kiss JD.

            She ignored the fact that his lips tasted just a little bit like blood.

            They pulled away from each other when Veronica’s phone rang. Heather McNamara’s voice filtered through the receiver, “Veronica? I need you to come out to the cemetery, it’s urgent.”

            Veronica glanced at JD. His chest was still covered in the weird yellow paste, and it must have been giving him some relief because his eyes were closed, and he almost looked like he might be falling asleep.

            “Sorry, Heather. I can’t go. I’ve got something I need to take care of. Call Heather, maybe she can help you.”

            With that, Veronica hung up the phone. She felt a bit bad for blowing Heather off, but what was she supposed to do? She couldn’t just leave JD when he was like this.

            Heather Chandler looked at JD one last time, “I think he’s fine for now, if he wakes up tonight put some more of the arnica on him. He’ll be sore tomorrow, but not as bad as he would have been.” With a satisfied nod, Heather disappeared into the otherworld.

            Mentally and physically exhausted, Veronica fell asleep.

 

 

Veronica woke early and immediately turned to check on the boy beside her in bed. He was whining quietly, and his face was scrunched up, clearly his dream was upsetting him.

After what he’d been through yesterday, it didn’t surprise her that he was having a nightmare.

Gently, Veronica nudged his good shoulder. He didn’t wake up. She tried again and it still made no difference so she gave up. Instead she began to wash the remains of the arnica paste off of his bruises—which actually did look a little better— and hoped that would rouse him eventually.

It worked a little too well. As soon as the rag touched his chest he startled and grabbed her hand, holding it tight enough to hurt. His eyes were still fogged with sleep but they cleared up when he realized who she was.

He relaxed his grip but didn’t release her hand. “Are you alright?” She asked cautiously. Sometimes she felt like she was talking to a cornered animal with him, he would either trust her enough to accept her help, or he would hurt her to protect himself. She trusted him not to hurt her.

He nodded and stood up to get dressed. Once his shirt and coat were back in place, he looked almost normal aside from the cut above his eyebrow. They rode to school together on his bike. Before they parted ways he pulled her in for a kiss, “Thank you, Veronica.” His eyes were so serious, and she had to force herself not to ask who had taken care of him the last time this had happened, because she was sure this wasn’t the first time.

She just nodded and kissed him back. There wasn’t anything she could say.

 

American history dragged on and on. After the night she’d had, Veronica felt that she deserved a nap, even if it came at the expense of her grades.

Only a few minutes later, an extremely distressed Heather Chandler woke her up, “Veronica! Veronica, wake the fuck up!”

Veronica checked quickly that no one was within earshot before she hissed, “God Heather, what is your damage?”

Heather’s normally cool, controlled demeanor was gone, and she looked frantic, “Veronica, go to the bathroom! Heather’s in there and I think she’s going to hurt herself!” Veronica didn’t move, trying to process this. Heather attempted to push her, but instead slipped through Veronica’s solid form, “Ugh, Veronica get off your ass, I mean it!” Rolling her eyes a little, Veronica stood up and slipped out of the classroom.

The teacher didn’t even notice.

When Veronica stepped through the bathroom door, it took her a moment to make sense of what she was seeing.

Heather McNamara was holding an empty pill bottle.

She was crying; her makeup streamed down her face.

She was gagging.

After half a second of being frozen in shock, Veronica jumped into action. She grabbed the taller girl and squeezed her cheeks, trying to force the pills out of her mouth. Several fell to the floor, but Veronica wasn’t convinced she’d gotten them all.

If there was one good thing that could come of Heather Duke’s bulimia, it was that Veronica had learned how to make someone throw up. Heather struggled weakly, but didn’t really fight back as Veronica shoved her fingers down Heather’s throat until the gagging finally yielded some result.

Heather finished throwing up after a couple of minutes. Both girls were out of breath and crying, and Veronica had her arms wrapped around her friend, but Heather shoved her off.

“Go away, Veronica, this is private,” Heather snapped, not looking at all grateful.

Veronica ignored her and settled in next to her friend, “Heather, I know everyone’s secrets, you can trust me to keep yours. Whatever is bothering you, I can help you, I promise. But you have to let me in.”

Heather shook her head, “You won’t believe me. No one will believe me.”

Veronica raised one eyebrow, “Try me.”

Finally, Heather caved, “You have to promise never to tell anyone. Not a single person, okay?” Veronica nodded solemnly. Chandler appeared next to her, and watched with wide eyes as Heather took a deep breath, “I called you last night because Kurt asked me to. I was on a date with Ram and he showed up. We all went to the cemetery because we thought we wouldn’t get caught drinking there. They got really drunk, and they were talking about all this spooky shit, I was freaked out and I wanted to leave, but they said they’d only let me go if I got you to come. But you didn’t come,” Her eyes turned accusatory as she glared at Veronica, “So all they had was me.” On the last word her voice broke and her anger melted into pain.

Heather Chandler’s blue eyes were full of horror and disgust, and the same feelings filled Veronica as she realized what Kurt and Ram had done to McNamara.

Veronica felt her heart break, “Oh, god, Heather…” Veronica didn’t know what to say. _Sorry_ doesn’t really cover ‘you were horribly assaulted because I wasn’t there to stop it or take your place’. She gave up on words and just rubbed Heather’s back as she cried. Cautiously, Veronica said, “You could go to the police, what they did to you is a crime, Heather.”

Heather shook her head, “They’d never believe me, and even if they did, do you really think they’d arrest the quarterback and the linebacker?” She gestured at the pills that were scattered on the ground, “Let’s face it, this is my only option.”

Veronica grabbed Heather’s chin and forced her to look her to meet her gaze, “No it isn’t. Staying alive is always an option. It might suck a lot, but trust me, it’s tons better than being dead.” Veronica almost told Heather the whole truth, but she didn’t want to burden the distraught girl, so she didn’t clarify _how_ she knew that the afterlife wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

For a little while, the girls just held each other and cried together. When Heather seemed calm enough, Veronica asked her a question that had been bothering her, “Heather, did Kurt and Ram seem _different_ last night? Were they acting strange or anything, I mean, before they hurt you?” Veronica was certain there wasn’t a single more awkward way to ask that. She would have been better off just blurting out “Do you think they were possessed by evil ghosts?”

Heather shook her head, “The truth is, this wasn’t new for them. They’ve done it before, or at least that’s the rumor. Some sophomore girl had to transfer last year because she tried to go to the police, but Kurt’s dad kept it all hushed up.” Heather started crying again, “I didn’t believe her! I called her a slut, and now that’s what they’ll call me,” She started choking on her sobs and Veronica pulled her back into a hug until she was breathing normally again.

Chandler finally moved from where she’d been frozen for the past several minutes. She joined the other two on the floor and wrapped her ghostly arms around her friend. Until that moment, Veronica hadn’t known that ghosts could cry.

 


	10. Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This chapter made me cry and yet it's still a breather chapter compared to the last one. This one is a little longer than the others (except last chapter which was also long), I hope you don't mind. This week I finally went back to therapy after months of putting it off and getting worse, so as part of a new campaign to be nice to myself, I'm dedicating this chapter to me. Despite all the flaws, I'm really proud of all of the stories I've written on here. Thank you all for reading and supporting me during a difficult time. Enjoy!

At lunch, JD became very worried when he couldn’t find Veronica. He was still convinced that the spirit they’d banished that weekend would come back for her, and it made him nervous that she wasn’t near him.

 _Not that I could do much_ he thought bitterly as he shrugged his injured shoulder experimentally for the millionth time that day. Yep, still sore.

JD sighed to himself and made his way to the library, hoping Veronica was planning to meet him where they’d hidden yesterday. Instead, he felt a vague sense of something like unease, but a little less unpleasant. He took a deep breath and focused his mind, gripping the spirit glass tightly in his fist. As if a fog had been lifted, he could see Martha standing by the bookshelves, watching him.

“Hey, Martha, have you seen Veronica?” He asked, as if she were just another student and not the displaced soul of a teenager who’d died tragically.

“She left,” Martha replied, and JD’s heart sank, “I think she left a note in your locker though. She didn’t mean to leave you; she had to take care of the sad girl. The mean ghost from yesterday was with them too, does that help?”

JD nodded, “Thanks Martha. Can you keep an eye out for any weird stuff for me?”

Martha agreed readily, “Sure, what kind of stuff?”

“Just anything that seems bad or scary. Also, there’s a ward somewhere that protects the town, do you have any idea where it is?” JD looked at Martha hopefully, he was shocked that the idea of asking a ghost hadn’t occurred to him sooner, but of course his abilities were new.

The ghost shook her head, “Sorry, no I don’t know anything about that. The only place we’re not supposed to go is the house on Maple Street because we’re supposed to leave the mediums alone unless it’s urgent.”

“That’s very considerate of you. Who makes those rules?”

Martha shrugged, “I guess the last medium did. Ghosts don’t really need rules, we’re pretty much just neutral, but we can get pretty invasive. Mediums have the power to banish all kinds of ghosts, we like Veronica because she never does it.”

JD nodded and said goodbye to the ghost. He went to his locker to read Veronica’s note.

_JD—_

_Sorry I had to leave, Heather M was in bad shape so we’re ditching. Just come by my house later and I’ll fill you in. Please be safe_

_Love,_

_Veronica_

 

Love. He was almost choked up, reading that one word. Sure, she hadn’t actually said that she loved him, but it was something. It gave him hope, because after last night, JD was certain that he was hopelessly in love with Veronica. That she had just accepted him—bleeding and broken—when he needed her most meant the whole world to him. However she felt about him, JD was certain that he belonged to her.

He decided to skip the rest of school. There wasn’t much point to staying, he either already knew what they were teaching or didn’t care to learn it. Rather than bothering with a fake absence note, he just walked right out the doors. No one tried to stop him.

JD rode back to the rental house. Hopefully Bud would be at the demolition site, but if not, JD would just tread carefully. Most likely the old man had gotten the worst of it out of his system last night, but JD had broken one of the most sacred rules they had, and that couldn’t go unpunished.

After he’d parked the bike, JD climbed carefully to his bedroom window using the same tree that Veronica had just over two days ago. His shoulder screamed in pain the whole time, but he made it.

Once he was in the room, he grabbed the black bag that held all of his supplies and weapons. He always had his revolver, but he liked to have a couple extras just in case he ran out of ammo. To the usual contents of the bag he added an extra pair of jeans, a few t-shirts and pairs of underwear, and his toothbrush. A few days away from Bud would do them both good, and there was probably a closet in the school he could squat in for the time being.

When the door swung open, he didn’t turn around. Instead, he closed his fist around the handle of his revolver, bracing himself for the confrontation.

“Going somewhere?” Bud asked lazily.

JD turned around very slowly until he was facing his father, “I have something I need to take care of. I’ll be back in a couple days.”

Bud took a long drag from his cigarette, “That little bitch from yesterday? Is that what you’re _taking care of_?”

JD’s knuckles whitened on the handle of the gun, “Leave Veronica out of this. She was only trying to help.” He wasn’t sure why he bothered trying to get through to his father.

“Trying to help,” Bud snorted out a bitter laugh, “So you told your stupid whore everything, didn’t you? It’s _rule. Fucking. One—“_

“Don’t talk about her like that!” JD hissed fiercely, raising the gun and pointing at his father’s head.

Bud just laughed and flicked cigarette ash at him, “You’d never do it.”

JD knew he was right. Killing a body that was inhabited by an evil spirit was one thing, murdering someone in cold blood was another. And the fact of the mater was that JD knew his mother wouldn’t want him to do it.

He lowered the gun, “You’re right. I wouldn’t. That's why we're different.” With that he grabbed his bag and pushed past his father, walking out the door.

Bud followed him down the stairs, “I’m almost done with this hotel, Jason. I might not be here when you get back.” The way he said it sounded like a threat, but JD couldn’t care anymore. Bud had been threatening to leave him in various towns across the United States for years; it didn’t faze JD anymore.

So, he just smirked, “You’d never do it.”

Then he walked out of the house. Part of him hoped that Bud accepted his challenge and left town. The other part of him wasn’t quite ready to find out what life on his own meant.

Pushing all this to the back of his mind, he climbed on his bike and rode away to Veronica’s house. He repeated the agonizing climb from the night before and entered through Veronica’s slightly open window. She wasn’t around, so he grabbed one of her grandmother’s diaries and settled in to wait for Veronica’s return.

If Veronica was startled when she walked into her room and found him already in there, she didn’t let on. “Hi,” He could tell she was trying to sound casual, but he could see that she’d been crying and she looked exhausted.

He stood up and walked over to her, wrapping her in a hug. For now, it didn’t matter what had upset her, he just wanted to make it better for a little bit. JD led her over to the bed and sat down behind her, inexpertly rubbing her shoulders.

Despite his clumsiness, she leaned back into the touch, sighing and stretching like a contented cat, “God JD, you would not believe the day I’ve had.”

He leaned down and brushed his lips across the thin skin of her throat, “Try me.”

For whatever reason, the words seemed to upset her and she flinched away from him. “I’m sorry,” He offered weakly, not sure what he’d done wrong.

Veronica shook her head, “It’s not your fault. Something… happened and I feel guilty because I might have been able to stop it, and I didn’t.”

“And you can’t tell me what it was?” He asked, but he already knew the answer.

“It’s not my secret to tell,” She explained.

He nodded, accepting her answer. “Whatever it was Veronica, I’m sure it wasn’t your fault. There’s no way to know what’s going to happen, you couldn’t have prevented anything.”

Veronica just shrugged, he got the feeling she wasn’t totally convinced by his words. Still, convinced or not, she stretched up to kiss him. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Heather interrupted them, barreling straight through Veronica’s bedroom wall. “I’m going to kill them, I swear! As soon as I’m back in my body I’ll poison them a little bit every day until they waste away slowly into the enormous piles of shit that they are!” The whole room had gone cold, and the papers on Veronica’s desk fluttered when Heather paced past them. The ghost was so enraged she was almost becoming corporeal.

“Calm down, Heather—“ Veronica started, but Heather cut her off.

“Calm down? Calm down? You’re seriously going to tell me to calm down after what those assholes did to our friend?” Heather turned on Veronica, and some of her dark hair was blown out of her face by the force of Heather’s rage.

Veronica held her ground, “Heather, killing them won’t change anything for Heather. We just have to be there for her.”

“I can’t be there for her! I’m dead!” Heather snapped. “I’m the one who gave her the idea to kill herself, you heard what she said earlier, ‘but Heather did it’. This is my fault.”

Veronica shrugged, “Maybe. Probably not though. Sometimes things just suck. Terrible things happen to good people. It’s all random. It’s just chaos.” Her tone was hollow and bitter, and JD wondered where she’d been hiding all of that cynicism.

The room had returned to its normal temperature and Heather had stopped pacing. “I’m going to stay with her for tonight, just to make sure she doesn’t try to do anything again.” She paused to glare at Veronica, “But we’re revisiting the idea of killing them when I see you tomorrow!” With that, she disappeared into the spirit world.

With the mood effectively killed and Veronica more stressed than ever, they settled in to read more diaries. Veronica kept anxiously switching positions, finally settling on lying down with her head in his lap. He liked being able to feel her weight there— she was warm, and he knew he could keep her safe when she was this close.

The downside of this position was that when she sat up sharply a little while later, she jostled his bad arm painfully. “JD, look at this!” He glanced down at the spindly, looping handwriting on the page, but she read aloud, “’Today I visited both the wards to make sure that they are intact. They’re safe for now.’” Veronica beamed at him, “There isn’t just one ward, there are two! We finally know something!” Before he could articulate a reply, she kissed him.

For a minute or two, he let himself get lost in her, but they had work to do so he pulled away. “Veronica, we have to keep looking for a location. A lot of bad things are coming and we need to be ready for them.”

JD reached for his bag, trying to grab some of his supplies, but he only succeeded in spilling the contents across the floor.

Veronica stared in horror at everything he carried with him. He assumed the guns were the most worrying things there, but he also carried a few frighteningly large knives, and everything else looked suspicious surrounded by weapons.

He reached out to Veronica, trying to comfort her or trying to explain but she flinched away from him. “JD, what the fuck is all this stuff?”

“Just supplies and stuff. Things I need.” JD tried to keep his tone neutral, though his feelings were anything but.

Veronica sighed, looking searching his soul with those fathomless eyes, “You can’t use any of these” She gestured to the weapons, “on a ghost, so what are they for?”

“They’re for the bodies the ghosts are using.” He said simply, there was no point in lying to her anymore.

Her face had gone ashen, “JD… have you killed people?”

Again, he answered plainly and tonelessly, “Yes.” He didn’t bother with excuses.

“Oh my god…” Veronica stood up and moved to her bed, sinking down on it and putting her head in her hands.

 “Veronica, I know you don’t understand, but every war has casualties—“

 “Yes, but we aren’t at war, JD,” Veronica snapped, interrupting him.

“I am!” He snapped back, “I’ve been at war for seven fucking years!” She flinched when he yelled at her, and he regretted raising his voice.

She grabbed him by the back of his coat, yanking him down until he was sitting next to her. Veronica gripped his chin in her hands, forcing him to meet her gaze, “I wish I could convince you that you aren’t. That you don’t need to fight the world just to protect the things you care about. JD, I can’t change what you’ve done in the past, but I want you to promise me you’ll try to find another way this time. There has to be some way to save a person who’s possessed.” She smiled slightly, and brushed a tear he wasn’t aware he’d shed off of his cheek. “I’ll help you find it.”

He put a hand on her shoulder, and stared at it instead of meeting her gaze, “So you aren’t going to leave me?” He asked, hating how small and pathetic his voice sounded.

She bent her head, forcing herself back into his field of vision, “Never. Just please try to find another way.”

 JD let out the breath he’d been holding in a great rush, “Yes. I promise, I’ll figure something out.” _I’ll do anything._

Veronica didn’t reply, instead she leaned in and kissed him and he sank into it gladly. She was small and soft and warm in his arms and he loved the taste of her lips.

   “You’re beautiful,” He whispered into her mouth and he felt it curve up into a smile.

 He barely noticed the sharp stab of pain when she removed his coat and let it fall to the floor. JD just kept kissing her. The world could have been ending around them, and he wouldn’t have stopped. Let it burn, if it meant he could stay here with Veronica.

JD gently pushed the jacket off of her shoulders, moving slowly in case she wanted to stop him. She didn’t, so he began to undo the buttons on her blouse, but she swatted his hands away and pulled it over her head, immediately doing the same to his shirt.

With the press of her skin against his he began to feel some of his pain sliding away. _She doesn’t hate you. She’s staying._ The words repeated over and over in his head as he laid her down in the bed. They moved together in exactly the right way, both of them finding in the other some of their missing pieces.

“I love you,” He whispered, seconds before he came apart.

Afterwards, she lay in his arms trembling from the aftershocks of her orgasm. He absently brushed the hair off of her forehead. Her fingers twined around the leather cord he wore around his neck, though she carefully avoided touching the ring that hung on it.

“Can I ask about her?” Of course she knew what it was. Veronica was too smart and too sensitive to not be able to guess whose engagement ring he wore next to his heart at all times.

He nodded slowly. He hadn’t spoken about his mother in seven years, but if there was anyone he could open up to, it was Veronica.

“What was she like?”

He stared vacantly at the blue wall across from the bed, “She was light, in every sense of the word. She made rooms brighter just by walking into them. She just had this way of making everything better. Literally, actually; she was a healer.”

Veronica’s eyes widened, “So she could…”

JD nodded, “She fixed all of my scraped knees, and she hid all of her bruises. She didn’t want me to know about dad. They were both ghost hunters, I think he kept her around to avoid going to the hospital. That’s how he is. He sees people in terms of usefulness.” And JD was a lot less useful now.

Veronica’s eyes widened and she pulled him even closer to her, letting him bury his face in her hair. He breathed deeply and the scent of her hair comforted him, “She would have loved all the stuff Heather did last night. She was into that sort of thing.”

“So, do you have any abilities like that? I mean, if your mom was powerful…”

Veronica looked at him expectantly, and he hated to disappoint her, “No. I think it’s like yours; it only goes to the women of the family. Until Sunday, I didn’t have any unusual abilities.”

She chewed on her lip, and he was pretty sure he could guess her next question. “How did she die, JD?”

He couldn’t look Veronica in the eye anymore. Partly because his own eyes had filled with tears, and also because he didn’t want to see her pity. “She was possessed. Otherwise, she never would have left me. My dad was a bastard, and she hated her life with him, but she never would have left me alone. I know that. Some ghost got her and she walked into this creepy haunted library in Texas, right before my dad blew it up.” He paused to take a deep breath. His memories of that day were still crystal clear. “She went to a window, and she waved at me. I don’t know if it was her saying goodbye, and she fought that thing long enough to get it somewhere she could destroy it, or if that thing forced her to kill herself to get back at my dad for destroying the building. I’ll never know.”

He fell silent after that, and Veronica didn’t try to ask him anything else. He held onto her tightly, and though it was still early evening, he felt exhausted enough to sleep for years. As he drifted off, Veronica kissed his cheek, “I love you too, JD.”

           


	11. Monsters and Murderers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The best part about writing this story is that I've changed the plot just enough that maybe people might not know where things are going. I like to think there's some suspense and this isn't totally predictable, but you'll have to let me know. This chapter goes to all my LGBTQ+ readers, especially those who aren't in a place where they can safely or comfortably celebrate National Coming Out Day. You are loved and supported. Enjoy!

 JD was still curled around her when Veronica woke up the next morning before dawn. At least he seemed peaceful for a change.

When she’d returned from dinner with her parents last night, he’d been muttering in his sleep, twitching and shifting anxiously. She’d sat next to him to read some more of her grandmother’s diary, but she didn’t learn anything new about the wards. When she’d eventually fallen asleep, she’d made sure to be as close to him as she could. It seemed to comfort him a little.

But now it was morning, and light was just beginning to filter through her window, and she had too much on her mind to just sit still. She dressed quietly and slipped out the door, “borrowing” the keys to her mom’s station wagon on her way out.

 She drove to the woods behind the school. Once upon a time, she and Betty had played there and it had always been quiet and free of ghosts. Veronica liked to come here when she needed to think. This morning, she brought her diary so that she could organize her raging thoughts free from influence or interruption.

_Dear Diary,_

_I don’t even know how to write down everything that’s happened to me since I last had time to write. Kurt and Ram hurt Heather M, and Heather C is threatening to kill them. I’ve seen her angry many times, but I’ve never seen her furious. It’s terrifying. Heather said they weren’t acting weird, but I still wonder if they might have been possessed. JD said that loose spirits want to cause as much pain as they can, and at least as far as Heather is concerned, they certainly have._

_Research is still happening, but it’s going slow. I saw in one of Grandma Sawyer’s diaries that there are two wards, but she neglected to mention where they are. I’m starting to wonder if it’s something super obvious, and she never wrote it down because she thought I’d be able to guess which buildings would hold the wards. Well, sorry Grandma, I guess I’m not as smart as you thought I would be._

_In other news, I found out last night that my boyfriend kills people. Well, he has killed people in the past. It’s a lot to take in because shortly after finding that out, I told him that I loved him. Does that make me crazy? Ugh my life is so out of control right now. I just wish things could go back to_

Veronica looked up from her diary when she heard a twig snap. She could hear leaves crunching under approaching feet, but she couldn’t see them through the foliage. She could sense that something was wrong though. Reaching one arm into the spirit world, Veronica grabbed her knife. Thankfully, the otherworld wasn’t limited by things like physical space, so her weapon was always right where she needed it to be.

Having her knife—actually a sharpened letter opener she’d found in her grandmother’s things— was comforting. Veronica stood up straight and angled herself towards the footsteps, which were still making their way towards her. It sounded like at least two people.

It was.

Kurt and Ram pushed back a couple branches to step into her clearing. Though, on closer inspection, Veronica wasn’t sure that it was Kurt and Ram at all. There was something wrong with their faces. Like children holding flashlights under their chins to frighten each other, the shadows on their faces were all wrong. They were Kurt and Ram, but twisted, changed. Empty.

 All at once, Veronica knew why her neck was prickling, why sweat was gathering on her forehead, why she felt twitchy and nervous. Kurt and Ram were possessed. Standing her ground, Veronica raised the knife.

 It occurred to her—quite belatedly—that she’d never had to use the knife on anyone, and she probably should have asked JD for advice.

The boys advanced on her slowly, “Looky here, what’s this we found?” Kurt’s voice was like a bad recording; the same, and yet some how extremely off-putting.

The thing in Ram’s body smiled, “Some weird girl we know. She’s one the big guy is looking for, Veronica. The medium.” They both leered at her, and she took an involuntary step back.

Veronica wanted to be brave. She wanted to stand her ground and find a way to save herself, but she was scared. All at once, her powers weren’t a blessing anymore. They made her a target, and they couldn’t save her from whatever was about to happen.

The forest around the clearing was too dense for her to easily climb through and run away. She had effectively put herself in a trap to be found and killed. With running out of the question, Veronica decided to try to get some more information and stall for time. Maybe a ghost had felt her take her knife from the spirit world. Maybe help was on the way.

 “Who’s the big guy?” She asked, taking another small step back. The jocks seemed to be in no hurry to grab her; they were aware that she was cornered.

Kurt took a step closer “The big guy is going to be running the show in Sherwood pretty soon. You met him last weekend.” Veronica tensed even further when she was reminded of the thing that had tried to drag her from JD’s window.

 “Why me? What does it want?” Veronica’s voice shook more than she would have liked it to.

 Kurt rolled his eyes at Ram, “This bitch sure does have a lot of questions.”

They reminded her of the boys whose skins they were wearing enough to pull some sarcasm from her, “I’ve asked three questions, but I guess that’s as high as you can count, so it would seem like a lot.”

 “Fuck you, bitch!” Ram said. Loose spirits were not terribly original apparently.

 “Calm down. It’s okay if she wants to know some things. It’s not like it’s going to matter when she’s dead.” Kurt smiled at Veronica and her stomach clenched. This thing was making the real Kurt look charming. “The big guy just wants the people protecting this town dead. You’re the last one, since I’ve got this kid and the witch’ll be dead soon. After that, we just get rid of the wards and the town will belong to us.”

His evil smile was so cliché that Veronica was able to dig some anger out from under all of her fear, “What, ‘first Sherwood and then the world’? Jesus, could you be any more banal? Did you hurt Heather too?” When they looked confused, she snapped “Two nights ago, at the cemetery?”

The thing that was Ram tilted his head, “Nope. That was the boys, she was… _convenient_.”

Veronica had no words for her fury and disgust. She tightened her grip on the knife. Experience or not, the time for talking was over, and it looked like she was going to have to use it.

 She barely had time to brace herself.

She didn’t have time to do anything with the knife.

The possessed guys seemed to sense the same thing she had, and they both moved in on her at once. Kurt reached her first, and lifted her off the ground easily. He held her off the ground for a moment, and Veronica thought he was going to kiss her. She squirmed and tried to kick him, cursing her height. With seemingly no effort, Kurt tossed her hard into one of the trees that surrounded the clearing.

Her breath left her in a rush and she couldn’t seem to get it back. The two were approaching her at a slow, menacing pace, laughing as she choked and groaned in pain.

“Well, I can tell that our boys liked this girl… maybe we should try to figure out why,” Ram’s face was twisted into a grotesque leer and Veronica’s stomach churned. She tried to stand up, but she still couldn’t breathe and her limbs weren’t obeying her.

Kurt’s smile was almost playful, “What do you think? Count of three?”

 Ram nodded, and they counted in unison, “One…”

_God damn it stand up!_ She couldn’t.

"Two…”

_Get the knife!_ She reached for it, but she couldn’t reach it.

“Three.”

BANG  
BANG

Kurt and Ram fell to the forest floor.

Dead.

“Veronica? Veronica, look at me. Are you alright?” JD’s face filled her field of vision, and she couldn’t see the bodies anymore. He reached for her, and she flinched away, still expecting the attack that he’d stopped.

“Shh, Veronica, it’s alright. You’re safe now.” This time when he reached for her, she let him pull her into something approximating a hug. From here, she could see the bodies again. They each had matching holes red stains on their chests, and they had fallen so close together their hands touched.

JD pulled back; once more blocking her from looking at the bodies of two boys she’d known her whole life. “JD… What the fuck did you do?”

He bit his lip, “I killed them. I know I promised to find another way, but there wasn’t time. I’m sorry. They didn’t deserve to die—“

“Yes they did.” Veronica cut him off, “I’m not mad that they’re dead. I just wish _you_ didn’t have to kill them. JD, if you go on like this you’ll lose your soul. I can’t let that happen.”

He pressed his forehead against hers, breathing hard, “I didn’t have time to think. They were going to hurt you. I will _never_ let that happen.” The intensity in his voice frightened her a little bit, but he was strong and familiar and that was comforting. She leaned into him.

“How did you find me?” He had been fast asleep when she’d left, and she’d had to drive here. It seemed impossible that he could have gotten to her in time.

“Heather. She saw you in the woods and felt them coming. She woke me up and told me where to go. God, Veronica, if I’d been one second too late…” His eyes were wide with horror, and he pulled her against him again.

“I’m fine,” She whispered, and she really didn’t know which of them she was trying to convince.

Heather had appeared and was standing next to the bodies. “I wish I could spit on them.” She said, but her voice was toneless. For all her bravado, Veronica knew she hadn’t really wanted them to die.

Veronica slipped out of JD’s arms and stood up, holding a hand out to him, “Come on, we have a double suicide to stage.”

He looked confused— and possibly a little disturbed— by her blasé attitude, but he stood up and went to rummage through his bag. He pulled out a second gun; nearly identical to the one he’d used to shoot JD. He put one gun in each hand, while Veronica searched their pockets. Luckily, Kurt had died with his biology notes in his pocket.

She looked hard at the bodies of the guys who had hurt Heather McNamara, and something dark bubbled up inside her. She looked at Chandler, “I’m going to make them pay.”

Heather nodded once, “Do it.”

So Veronica wrote a note that they would hate.

_Ram and I died the day we realized we would never be able to reveal our love to a misapproving world. The joy we shared in each other’s arms was greater than any touchdown, and we hope to go to a place where we can experience that joy forever._

JD gulped when he looked at it, “Veronica, if they come back as ghosts they’ll never leave you alone.”

 “If they come back as ghosts, I’ll be stronger than them.” Veronica meant her words. She wasn’t afraid of them.

They left the note at the scene and were preparing to walk away when they heard voices.

“Well, he sounded real serious when he said they were gunshots.”

“It was probably just some kids dicking around with fireworks.”

Heather appeared right in front of them, “It’s the cops, RUN!”

 Veronica grabbed JD’s hand and ran with him towards her car. They both jumped in clumsily, tripping over the doors and falling into their seats. Thinking quickly, Veronica pulled off JD’s shirt tugged off her own sweater.

Then she kissed him. He was obviously confused, but when he tried to pull away, she held on tighter and kept kissing him.

When the cop caught up with them, they just looked like a couple of teenagers making out in a station wagon. He left them alone.

Once she was sure he was gone, Veronica let go of JD’s hair and gave him some space.

He glanced at her with raised eyebrows, “That was quick thinking.”

She shrugged, “I saw it in a movie once.”

JD ran his fingers through his hair, and she watched as it all flopped back onto his forehead, piece by piece. Finally, she broke the long silence, “So… what do we do now?”

He didn’t answer; instead he slid his hands up her ribcage and pulled her close to him. They crashed into each other like waves hitting the shore. All of their tension and fear boiled over and they poured it into each other. They kissed like the world was ending.

And Veronica was pretty sure it was, but for now, she didn’t care.

 


	12. Damned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! So this weekend is going to be really difficult and stressful, I won't have time to update again until at least Monday. Also, if you like the chapter, please be sure to let me know, I'll need the extra confidence boost. Here it is, the plot twist I'm sure you all saw coming, Enjoy!

“Wow. Holy shit.” Veronica had just finished telling JD what the jocks had told her before they died. Their clothes were more or less back in place, though Veronica’s hair was still a mess and JD’s coat was in a heap on the backseat.

“So there’s an evil ghost in charge of the other evil ghosts and they’re all trying to destroy the wards and take over the town?” Heather asked, popping up in the back seat of the car and scaring the shit out of JD. Thankfully she was a ghost so when he instinctively punched her, his fist went through her face.

She was still justifiably miffed though, “Jesus, do you have to act like a psycho all the time?”

“Sorry, Heather.” He wasn’t really that sorry. Heather should have known better than to sneak up on someone with his background. Still, she had helped him save Veronica, which meant that he would be in her debt for the rest of his life. He could spare an apology for her.

“We need to make a plan.” Veronica said, calling their attention back to the problem at hand, “First we need to find the wards, then we need to figure out how to make them stronger. Then we need to make sure we kill the loose spirit that’s in charge of the others. We also need to work out a way to kill ghosts that doesn’t involve killing the person they’re wearing. Did I miss anything?”

“Well, you didn’t say that we need to avoid dying for the cause?” Heather noted.

Veronica rolled her eyes, “It was implied.”

JD went back over the list in his head. It seemed impossible. “Guys, I think we need to bring in help for this one.” He didn’t even want to suggest it. The idea made him sick to his stomach but facts were facts, and they needed some backing them up.

Heather automatically shook her head, “No. Heather is too fragile right now and Heather is waaay too practical to join our little ghost-hunting club.”

JD sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, fighting a headache, “I was talking about my dad, Heather.”

Now it was Veronica’s turn to look appalled, “JD, we can’t trust him. I’ve met him all of one time and I know he’s unstable. Jesus, just look at your face if you want a decent reason not to bring him into all this! He won’t help us, he’ll probably only make things worse—“

“Veronica,” JD interrupted, “He’s been hunting ghosts since he was our age. He knows all about this stuff. Sure he’s psychotic, but that doesn’t mean he’s useless. And you have to face it, we need all the help we can get.” Still his eyes drifted to the rearview mirror, where he could see the wound he’d gotten the last time his dad had gotten angry.

Veronica chewed her lower lip, still slightly swollen from his kisses. Her voice was small when she replied, “I just don’t want him to hurt you again.” He was touched that she wanted to protect him.

“This is between you two, but if you want my opinion-“

“We don’t.” Veronica snapped.

“Fine, fine,” Heather muttered, putting her hands in the air.

JD ignored her and pushed a lock of hair behind Veronica’s ear. “You have more important things to protect than just me. I can handle my dad, you don’t have to worry about me.”

“At least let me come with you? For backup,” She pleaded. He wanted to say yes, but he knew that having her there would only make things worse.

“No, you keep combing through the journals. They’re our only hope of finding the wards. I’ll talk to my dad and see if we can get some help, or at least some advice.”

Veronica nodded, she didn’t look happy, but at least she wasn’t arguing with him. He would have caved immediately if she’d argued.

He kissed her quickly and got out of the car. He had to go get his bike. Before he walked away, he turned back to Veronica, “Hey, I love you.”

Despite the darkness and death all around them, Veronica smiled at him, “I love you too.”

“I hate you both!” Heather said brightly. JD and Veronica both just laughed. Secretly, he thought Heather was starting to genuinely like them, against all of her instincts. If they survived this, he resolved to let her look at some of his mom’s things that he’d saved, to help with her witchcraft.

 

The rental house was empty when he got there. God only knew where his dad was, and JD just had to pray that they had enough time for him to sit here and wait.

It took five minutes for JD to get restless. He wished he had one of the diaries to keep him occupied. He also wished he hadn’t forgotten his damn coat in Veronica’s car. For a lot of reasons, he felt unsafe without it.

He paced until his father eventually turned up. Bud barely spared JD a glance, “Good you’re here. We’re leaving.”

JD stopped halfway across the living room and stared at his father, “What, now? No we can’t.”

Bud’s eyebrows shot up, “We _can’t_? I don’t think you really understand how this partnership works.”

“I’m not your goddamn partner! I’m your son!” The words hurt coming out, but JD needed to make his father listen. Veronica needed him to do this. “Dad, we have to stay a little longer—“

“I’m finished here.” Bud cut him off, “ The building’s gone, so we’re leaving town. There’s something happening in Wyoming that we need to check out, it looks pretty urgent, get your shit together and let’s go.” Bud approached him, seeming to finally take in JD’s admittedly disheveled appearance. “Where the fuck is your coat?” _Shit._ JD barely had time to brace himself before his dad smacked him upside the head leaving his ear ringing, “Rule number one, Jason, keep yourself protected.” JD knew that. It was probably the first time he’d broken that rule since he’d gotten the coat years ago— since his mom had carefully sewn a protective symbol into the lining. JD knew that telling Bud where he’d left the coat (and why it had been taken off in the first place) would only make things worse, so he kept silent.

Walking away, Bud tossed a box at him, “Get packed, I’m leaving in an hour.”

Feeling guilty and defeated, JD did as he was told. Just like he always did. They were ready in forty-five minutes.

Bud was doing his final sweep of the house to make sure they hadn’t left anything behind. JD stood by the suitcases in the living room, feeling utterly hopeless.

“You’re leaving?” He turned sharply when he heard Veronica’s voice coming from the doorway. She was staring with wide eyes at the boxes and suitcases piled in front of him.

“Veronica…” He started to explain, but then stopped. There really was no explanation for what he was doing. He didn’t want to go, and his father probably wouldn’t force him to, so why exactly was he doing this?

He didn’t know how to explain to Veronica that he just wasn’t quite ready for life on his own without sounding pathetic.

Veronica didn’t wait for him to find the words. She drew herself up to her full height— still pretty short—and schooled her face into something less tragic, “Okay then. I just came to tell you that I found the wards. Grandma Sawyer mentioned them in one of her diaries from the forties. It was the hotel and the high school. Heather is going right now to—“

“Wait,” JD said, his stomach dropped. _It couldn’t be… No, surely Sherwood has more than one hotel._ “Veronica, which hotel—“

“What the fuck is she doing back here?” Bud snapped, stepping in from the den.

Veronica glared at him, and JD admired her courage, “Nothing. I was just leaving.” She turned to go, but glanced over her shoulder at JD, “I get it, JD. This isn’t your town, but it is mine. I need to protect it. I guess… call me sometime.” She stepped away, but didn’t get far before Heather barreled into the room.

“Veronica!” She shouted, and the force of whatever she was feeling dropped the temperature in the room by several degrees, “Veronica! It’s fucking gone!”

Veronica looked at the ghost, “What’s gone?”

Bud had drawn his gun, “There’s something in here, Jason.” JD almost felt bad for the poor man as both he and Veronica turned to speak to a ghost that Bud couldn’t see.

“It’s just Heather, she’s not going to hurt anyone,” JD said absently, focused on his girlfriend and the blond ghost.

His father actually spluttered in wordless fury, clearly baffled by the fact that JD was talking about a ghost as if he knew it.

“Heather,” Veronica snapped, “Pay attention, _what’s gone_?”

“The hotel! It looks like it got blown up or something. It’s totally fucking gone!”

Veronica turned slowly towards JD, “Please… Please tell me that your father did not just _blow up_ one of two things standing between my home, and total destruction.” She seemed to be trying to remain calm, but she was speaking through clenched teeth.

“What is she talking about?” Bud asked, still holding his gun, but unsure where to point it.

JD ignored him for the time being, “Veronica, if I’d had any idea…”

“And now you’re going to leave?” She asked, and he noticed that her voice wavered a little.

He reached for her, still choking on all the words he wanted to say. He managed a very weak, “Veronica…”

She shook her head, “Goodbye, JD. Let’s go, Heather.” She walked out the door.

The infuriated ghost looked sharply at JD, “Fuck you.” She turned to Bud, “Fuck you even more.” Then she followed Veronica out.

Something deep inside JD snapped. The force of years of pent up anger and pain hit him like a bus. “You ruin everything,” He hissed at Bud, breathing like he’d just run a marathon, “It wasn’t enough that Mom had to die, no you had to make sure the rest of my life was a living hell just because I was _useful_ to you.” He spat the words like they were poison. “I finally had _one good thing_ in my life, and you had to make sure I lost her too.” Years and years of being numb had led to this moment, and he was shocked at how much rage _hurt._ JD stormed out of the house, still angry, but equally desperate to catch Veronica and beg her to let him stay with her.

She was gone.

The resentment only grew when he realized he wouldn’t see her again. That he was leaving, and Veronica would never climb through his window again. A dam had been broken, and JD doubted he would ever be able to contain these feelings again.

That was when the spirit hit him.

The pain of it was so intense that JD’s mind detached itself, and he felt like he was watching someone else writhe on his front lawn. It had never occurred to him to wonder if being possessed hurt.

It was the oddest sensation, and one that has no adequate description, suddenly sharing your body with another soul. JD only knew that he no longer had any control of his limbs or face. Nothing was his anymore. He was a passenger; this thing that had taken over was the driver.

JD could see the drivers thoughts and feelings though. Could sense the malicious intent, and knew that this thing that had taken him was the one in charge. It walked back towards the house, not in any kind of a rush.

“Hello, Jason.” It hissed internally, directly addressing the rightful owner of the body it was inhabiting.

_Fuck you_. He thought back at it. He wasn’t going to give it the satisfaction. Let it hurt him, let it kill him, but he would die fighting back at this thing.

“Jason, I can see everything you think. I don’t need you to cooperate. In fact, it’s more fun if you don’t.” JD could sense the smile that this thing was spreading across _his_ face. “I just can’t wait until I get to kill that girl. _Veronica”_ His voice caressed her name and JD was once again furious.

_Leave her alone!_

“I can’t do that. She’s a threat so she has to die. Once I do that I can destroy the high school and Sherwood will go back into the hands of its rightful owners.”

JD wanted to ask what that meant, but Bud distracted the spirit, walking out into the yard.

His pistol was aimed at JD’s forehead.

Unconcerned, the ghost smiled, “Are you going to kill me? He’ll die too, you know.”

Bud’s aim didn’t waver, “He’ll die anyway. I’ve been doing this for over twenty years, I’ve seen about five people come out of a possession alive. He might already be dead for all I know.”

The spirit’s grin widened, and JD could only imagine how grotesque the expression looked, “Oh, no! He’s still in here. Do you want me to let him talk to you? He has so much he wants to say…”

JD noticed that the gun was not nearly as steady as it had been when Bud nodded. “Let me talk to him.”

_Are you an idiot?_ He thought at his father, unable to believe how a man with this much experience could really think a spirit would let you talk to the person whose body it had stolen.

The spirit gave JD no answer, he was too busy taunting Bud, “Dad, please don’t shoot me. I’m your son! Please…”

_No! Kill me! Pull the damn trigger he’s going to kill Veronica!_

Bud lowered the gun, suddenly looking years older. The ghost smirked, “I knew you’d never do it.”

Then he turned and walked away.

JD felt like his soul was being dragged away from the shared body. There wasn’t room in here for both of them. He had clung too hard at first, when he thought Bud would shoot him, but now he was slipping away.

Unable to hold on any longer, JD let himself get dragged into oblivion.

It felt like being numb.

 

 


	13. Parents and Possessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary badasses. As expected, this weekend was really hard and I could use a confidence boost. If you like the chapter, be sure to let me know :) This is dedicated to tumblr user penguinpatrolerarmy who sent me my first ask on tumblr, thanks for that! Enjoy!

 

 

Veronica was trying very, very hard not to cry. She was sitting in her room, staring blankly at her grandmother’s diary; wrapped in the coat JD had left in her car. She should be reading. She should be researching. She should be trying to figure out a way to save Sherwood but all she could think about was JD.

JD when she’d climbed through his window, terrified and needing help.

JD teasing her and eating popcorn.

JD bruised and battered, coming to her for help.

JD telling her about his mom.

JD leaving her here to deal with this huge, horrible situation all on her own.

She wasn’t ready. She still couldn’t even fathom the full depth of her abilities, because she’d never practiced with them. Had never tried to do anything with them besides occasionally chatting with ghosts and trading secrets. She had no idea how to handle this problem.

She wasn’t ready, and JD was gone.

“God, Veronica, brood much?” Heather rolled her eyes, glaring at Veronica from the bed. “Breakups are hard, but you really need to get your ass in gear and start trying to save the town.”

“Oh, _I_ do?” Veronica snapped, thoroughly sick of feeling useless, “If it matters to you so much, why don’t you go wake the fuck up and _help me!”_

“I can’t, Veronica! I told you this,” Once again, Veronica had found the one thing that ruffled Heather’s perfect feathers. “Even with a body there’s nothing I can do to help. I’m sorry.” With that, Heather faded into the spirit world, leaving Veronica alone.

So, with little else to do, Veronica took out her diary and did what she always did to calm down.

_Dear Diary,_

_WHY. Ugh That’s all I have to say about all of this! Why did Betty have to leave? Why did I have to try to join the Heathers? Why did I have to be born a medium? Why did JD have to come to Sherwood? But most importantly, why did he have to leave? I shouldn’t have gotten mad at him, but I was just so surprised. I know he couldn’t just tell his dad to fuck off, and I know it was unfair to storm off like that, and I’m never going to get to tell him that, because he’s gone._

_The other bad thing about JD being gone is that now I’m stuck trying to save this godforsaken town all by myself. I even pissed off Heather, so once again, Veronica alienates everyone she cares about and ruins everything. I’m starting to think_ I _should down a glass of drain cleaner. At least then I’ll get to take over Sherwood with the rest of the evil ghosts. Speaking of ghosts, I can’t wait until I get my first visit from Kurt and Ram. Please note the sarcasm. I’m sure they’re going to want to tear me to shreds when they hear the rumors going around school. I don’t even care, let them try. Fuck them all!_

Veronica slammed her diary closed and tossed it at the wall. Now she was really crying, ugly sobs wrenched their way out of her lungs and she was left gasping for breath. When the tears subsided, Veronica took a deep breath. She hated crying, it wasn’t productive.

Heather was gone.

JD was gone.

Veronica Sawyer was still here, and she had shit to do.

 

The attic in her home was an eerie place. Veronica’s parents rarely came up here, and it was mostly full of her grandmother’s old things. Trunks full of old clothes were stacked against walls, cracked mirrors reflected odd patterns of light onto the walls and ceilings, and piles of books were scattered about in between everything.  

Veronica was here for the books. Her parents had often commented that Grandma Sawyer was a bit eccentric, and her book collection certainly made that believable. With titles like _Those We Love Never Leave Us, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and Here,_ and _Specters, Spirits, and Psychics,_ they certainly wouldn’t have fit in with Sherwood’s book club set. Veronica was grateful for them, despite their strangeness. Right now, they were her only source for much needed information.

She grabbed a few titles almost at random and brought them back to her room. Anything about wards, loose spirits, possession, or any of the other myriad things Veronica had to deal with would help her.

Hours went by, an entire school day elapsed while Veronica was pouring over those strange books, uncovering little details one at a time. She found that the wards had likely been built into the walls of the buildings, so the only way to get rid of them really was to completely destroy the whole structure. There was definitely no saving the one that had been in the hotel; wards were only as strong as whatever they were made of.

“Grandma Sawyer, why did you pick a building full of teenagers? Someone might be trying to destroy a building that is nearly always full of people!” Veronica muttered to the empty room. She was glad that her grandmother had been able to move on, but sometimes she really wished she could talk to her. Right now, Veronica had so many questions, and there was no one to answer them but her.

The books did yield some interesting answers, especially about possessions and banishing loose spirits. It looked like a strong medium could banish them, but it took a lot of energy. It also didn’t guarantee that the person who rightfully owned the body would survive. Souls were not meant to share bodies. At least the book said it wasn’t common for souls that had died because of possession to come back as ghosts. Hopefully that meant she wasn’t going to be getting visits from Kurt and Ram.

“Veronica! Time for dinner!” Her mother called her from downstairs, and Veronica quickly hid the books under her bed. She didn’t really want to talk to her parents about her interest in the occult. She knew full well they thought her grandmother had been crazy and they would think the same of her if they caught her reading this stuff.

Joyce Sawyer frowned disapprovingly at Veronica when she shuffled into the dining room, “Veronica, don’t slouch, and honestly when I call you to dinner, I’d like you to come a bit more promptly.”

Veronica nodded and fixed her posture; She wasn’t in the mood to argue.

“So, sweetie, isn’t the prom is this year, any contestants worth mentioning?”

_Well you see Mom, I saw this guy beat up the guy I was kinda dating and then I broke into his house. We were together for a little over a week, he killed two people and now he’s gone and I’m heartbroken._

“No.” Her mother didn’t press her on it, and instead shifted to talk about the neighborhood kid who’d been caught smoking weed behind the gym. Veronica didn’t care. She was just relieved that her parents didn’t want to talk about the tragic double suicide of both Sherwood’s best football players. Naturally the whole town was buzzing with the news, but Joyce wasn’t the sort of woman who discussed unpleasant things at the dinner table.

She was, however the sort of woman who entered her daughter’s bedroom without express permission. “I was getting your laundry today, Veronica, and I noticed that you had blood on your pillow, how on earth did that happen?”

_Shit, JD must have bled on the sheets the first night._ She tried not to show how alarmed she was, forcing her face to remain neutral, “I woke up with a nosebleed, that’s all.”

Veronica’s head snapped up to look at her mother, who was frowning at her. “You’ve hardly touched your dinner, and I made you favorite!”

Veronica searched for some excuse that would explain her lack of appetite, and could only come up with “I guess I’m just not hungry. Sorry, Mom.” Her parents had probably picked up on how jumpy she was tonight, and they spent the rest of the meal making small talk with one another, leaving Veronica to her thoughts.

Still, dinner seemed to last an eternity before Veronica could excuse herself and go back to her room. She flopped dramatically on her bed, burying her face in her pillows. A rather pathetic side of her wished her mom hadn’t washed her sheets, in case there was still a whiff of JD’s scent on them. When she’d opened the door, a part of her had almost expected to see him here, sleeping in her room, just like he had been the past few days.

“Um, excuse me?”

Veronica’s heart lurched and she jumped, nearly falling off of her bed in the process. Even after she realized it was just Martha, it took several moments for her heart rate to return to normal.

“Uh, hi, Martha, what’s up?” She would have expected Heather to show up unannounced, but Martha was so shy. It seemed out of character.

“I’m sorry! I know we aren’t supposed to come in your house, but I thought you needed to know.” The ghost was wringing her hands and her eyes were wide.

Veronica sighed, “It’s fine, I don’t mind. What do I need to know?”

“Oh! Right, um… Well, it’s JD. He’s… he’s possessed.”

And ice-cold fist gripped Veronica’s heart. _No. Not JD._

She sank to the bed and dropped her head into her hands. This was too horrible for words, for thoughts. She’d thought him leaving her was the worst thing that could happen, but she had been wrong.

This was worse.

This was so much worse.

Somehow, she knew on instinct who had possessed JD. It had to be the ghost in charge. JD was strong and tough, and she wasn’t surprised to hear that he was resentful. As much as she didn’t want to believe that this could happen to the boy she loved, it made too much sense to deny.

She looked up to say something to Martha, but Heather entered, presumably to relay more bad news.

“Veronica, JD—“

“I know. I heard” Veronica replied, before Heather could force her to listen to those words again.

“No, even worse than that. He’s on his way here.”

Veronica had thought she couldn’t get any more afraid, but once again, she’d been wrong.

But fear didn’t help her now. The spirit was undoubtedly coming here to kill her so he could get rid of the final ward unimpeded. She needed a plan to keep him from doing both of those things.

Immediately, instinctively, she grabbed her knife from the otherworld, but she knew that wasn’t a good plan. She couldn’t overpower JD in a fight, and at the end of the day, she didn’t think she could bring herself to stab him even if she got the chance.

She would have to get over that.

For now, she needed a way to surprise him. Something that would throw him off the scent and buy her a little time.

From her window, she heard a chilling call, “Heeeey, ‘Ronica.” She poked her head outside and saw Kurt and Ram, transparent in the moonlight. So much for possessed souls not coming back as ghosts. They didn’t look much like the ghosts Veronica had seen before. Their images swirled like they were made of some kind of toxic smoke, and her skin prickled as she looked at them. _Loose spirits._

She’d created two more.

There would be time to deal with that later, right now, they were calling up to her, like demented Romeo’s, “Ready or not, he’s on his way! I hope you don’t think you can hide!”

Veronica didn’t think she could hide, but she did think she could outsmart him. She had one advantage; she knew JD. Spirits got stronger on the emotions of their host, if there was anything left of JD in there, he would be fighting it, which would only make it stronger. But if something were to make JD shut down….

She knew what she had to do.

_Sorry, JD._

 She ripped her bed sheet off and began twisting it into a noose. Heather and Martha both stared at her wide-eyed. “Veronica, have you gone totally fucking insane?” Heather asked.

Veronica shrugged, she honestly didn’t have a good answer, because what she was about to do was pretty nuts. “Heather, I’m not killing myself… Probably. Both of you go, I need this to look real.” The ghosts exchanged reluctant looks, but followed her instructions and vanished into the spirit world.

The noose was ready just in time. She had exactly enough time to slip the rope around her neck before _it_ climbed through the window. Veronica caught the barest glimpse of JD’s face— shadowed and disturbed by the spirit that had control of him—before she slammed the door.

“Coming through the window is dreadful etiquette. Honestly I’d think the both of you were raised in a barn.” Veronica could hear the smile in his voice and her heart ached. She knew that smile, and she knew that voice and this thing had stolen them and made them his.

“You know, Veronica, I came here for two reasons. Do you want to know what they are?” He paused, but she didn’t say anything, choosing not to give him the satisfaction. “Oh well, I’ll tell you anyway. I came here to kill you, obviously.”

Veronica flinched, that sentence sounded so eerie in JD’s voice. Just yesterday he’d been the safest person she knew. Now he was probably dead and some horrifying _thing_ was inhabiting his body.

_God, why couldn’t I just have normal seventeen year-old problems?_

“But I also came here,” The spirit continued, “To thank you. You see, without you, I never would have been able to get this body. You made him open up, Veronica. You set loose all of the anger and pain he’d been keeping inside and that gave me room to sneak in. I’m so glad you’re going to die knowing that this is all your fault.” She heard his heavy steps approach the closet and she gritted her teeth.

_It’s time._

Veronica kicked the stool out from under her feet and let herself swing. Then, summoning all of her strength, she left her body behind and slipped all the way into the spirit world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is shorter, and it's almost done so check back tomorrow for an update!


	14. Choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! This chapter is short but the next one is proving really difficult so I can't promise as fast of an update for it. I worked hard on this part, so I hope it turned out well. I'm dedicating it to the wonderful BayleyWinchester, I always love your comments so much! Enjoy!

 

 

JD was in an old building that some part of his mind recognized. It was musty, and seemingly abandoned. His footsteps were too loud on the aged wood floors, but it didn’t stop him from wandering aimlessly through the endless halls and rooms.

After a while, he realized that the building was a library. Shelves were built into some of the walls, full of dust, empty of books. It was several rooms worth of walking before it dawned on him _which_ library he was walking through.

“This library is gone.” He whispered, but even that sound carried through the halls.

“Of course it is.” He didn’t turn to look at her. As soon as he’d figured out where he was, he knew she would be here. She was always here.

He could hear her footsteps drawing closer and he closed his eyes like a coward. He couldn’t look at her.

She put her hand on his shoulder and he was surprised to find that she was as solid as he was. “JJ, look at me.” He ducked and turned his head like a petulant child. The old nickname bothered him; he had forgotten why she called him that. “Sweetie, please,”

He couldn’t say no to her. JD finally looked up into her soft hazel eyes. His mother’s eyes.

JD cried. She looked exactly as he remembered her. She hugged him, and he let himself pretend that the last seven years hadn’t happened, and this library had never blown up, and he was just a kid who knew nothing about ghosts. It was a nice way to live.

“Mom,” He choked the word out, and she went on holding him. “Mom, why did you do it?” It was just one of hundreds of questions he’d always wished he could ask her. It was the only one that really mattered.

She smiled and pushed his hair out of his eyes, “That’s not what’s important right now. You have more important things to worry about.”

He shook his head, “No, I need to know. Mom, please.” He hated the pleading in his voice; hated that even after all these years, he was still the little boy, standing in front of an obliterated building asking ‘why’, over and over again.

She shook her head, “You need to leave here. You don’t belong here. Your fight isn’t over, Jason.”

“Was yours?” He snapped. Anger was easier to comprehend than all the pain she was inspiring.

“Yes.” He stared at her, her simple answer was harsh and unsatisfying. “I ended my fight because I thought it was the only option. The best way. We’ll never know if I was wrong, because that’s the way things happened. You haven’t reached that point yet.” Her eyes were so soft and so sympathetic.

“I don’t understand.”

“You can’t understand everything.”

He didn’t remember his mother being this cryptic. But she was gentle, and she was here, that’s what really mattered. He pulled her back into a hug.

She pulled away, stepping just out of reach. “Jason, I mean it, you need to leave. You don’t belong here.”

He was pretty sure that he did. She was dead, and so was he. This must just be what it was like to be dead. “I don’t want to leave.”

She touched him again, but it was to grip his shoulders tightly, shaking him just a little, “You aren’t dead, JJ. You’re still alive, you need to keep fighting to stay that way.”

“Why should I?” He asked, “All I have back there is a war I’ve been fighting since you died!” The words burned his throat on the way out, but it was the good kind of pain. It was cleansing.

“Really?” his mother asked, raising one eyebrow in an expression he recognized from his mirror, “Is that _all_ you have?”

He remembered pieces of her at a time.

The warm brown eyes that were deeper than space. The smile that made him feel strangely warm on the inside. Her hands taking care of his bruises, brushing over his scars gently. _Veronica_. Of course, how could he possibly have forgotten her?

“Veronica,” He said aloud, tasting her name on his lips.

His mother smiled, “That’s right. She needs your help, so you have to get back to her.”

JD looked around the library. It was quiet and safe and his mother was here. He couldn’t say any of those things about the world he would have to return to.

But… there were other things too. A beautiful girl, terrified and climbing through his window, protecting him with her anger and her Latin. That same girl convincing him that he still cared about things. And her with messy hair, smiling at him as she ate popcorn on his bed.

That decided it.

Veronica was real.

This was fake.

“I need to leave.”

His mother nodded, and hugged him, “I’m so proud of you, JJ. We’ll see each other again someday, but take your time.” JD was too choked up for words, but he held her until she faded away and he was alone again.

A square of sunlight fell over his feet, and he followed it to a window he hadn’t noticed before. Looking out, he saw a very familiar blue bedroom. He was looking through a window, and seeing through his own eyes. The thing had brought his body to Veronica’s room.

He could see the gun in his hand, and wished he could somehow take just a little control back. All he needed was enough to throw the gun away and give Veronica a chance to fight back. He had no doubt that she would find a way to kill him or save him, he just needed to help her get an opening.

JD could faintly hear his own voice blaming Veronica for his possession. It bothered him to no end that this thing was trying to make Veronica feel guilty. None of this was her fault. But he had to force himself to be patient; she needed that.

Then his hand pulled the closet door open. The gun was leveled at the ground, where the spirit had apparently assumed Veronica would be huddling in terror. Instead, she was hanging by her neck. JD turned to ice and stared through the window at Veronica.

_No, please don’t do this. Don’t have done this. Please, Veronica. Don’t leave me. I just got back. I chose to stay so I could fight for you, with you._

It didn’t make sense for Veronica to kill herself. Not now, not like this. Veronica was determined to save everyone, there was simply no way she would do this.

“Oh, you think she’s faking?” The spirit muttered, having picked up on JD’s return to reality. “Well let’s go and find out, shall we?” He approached Veronica and reached his hand out, pressing two fingers into the side of her neck.

JD noticed before the spirit did.

No pulse.

“Holy shit, she actually did it.” The spirit casually scratched JD’s head with the gun, puzzling over the body in front of him. “I have to say, I’m almost impressed by this little plot twist.”

JD considered replying, but found that he didn’t care. He didn’t care about a goddamn thing now that Veronica was dead because of this thing that was inside of him.

“Aww, the angel on my shoulder has nothing to say? That’s too bad. Come on, Clarence, I’ve got a high school to blow up.”

As he walked away, JD searched for some reason to keep trying. He knew that Veronica would want him to, that her last wish was probably for someone else to find a way to save everyone.

Well that’s what JD was going to do, and he was going to die trying.

 

 


	15. Souls and Shadows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got this done WAY faster than I was expecting to, so here's the next chapter! Hugs and gratitude to everyone who commented, I couldn't pick a favorite so this chapter is for all of you. Because we're coming close to an ending with this story, I'm starting to think about what I'll do next. Right now, my options are 1) a prequel to innocent guilt, 2) a sequel to Saving Souls, or 3) Something completely different. If you picked the third option, please feel free to request something, either in the comments or on tumblr (Scouts-Mockingbird). I can't promise I'll write it, but I'm low on ideas so I'll take any suggestions!!! Enjoy!

The otherworld was made of smoke and shadows. Veronica walked through it and the mist parted before her, billowing up in round gray clouds. The spirit that had taken over JD couldn’t follow her here without leaving the body behind, so she figured it was something of a win-win either way. On one hand, she might be able to buy herself some time before the spirit tried to destroy the final ward. On the other, to chase her into the spirit realm, it would have to leave JD’s body behind, giving him a chance to protect himself. She was confident that together they could beat the spirit.

As she walked aimlessly through the spirit realm, Veronica became aware of the fact that Heather and Martha were walking with her. It was comforting to have company, and the fact that they could hold her hands was a pleasant surprise.

“How will I know when I can go back?” Veronica asked, shattering the eerie quiet.

“Give it more time,” Martha answered, “If you go back too soon, he’ll catch you, and the whole plan will be ruined.”

Heather was less cautious, “But if you wait too long, he’ll have a huge head start, and he’s already two steps ahead of us.”

Veronica wished there was some way to peer into the real world without being seen, but it was too risky. “Martha’s right; now’s not the time to rush things.”

They fell silent after that. Disturbing the peace of the otherworld seemed like breaking an unwritten, unspoken law. It was like walking around underwater, everything was silent and slow. Veronica wished she could just float away.

They passed other ghosts as they walked, and Veronica began to notice that she and Heather stood out. The colors of their clothes, hair, and skin seemed just slightly too bright. It made sense; they still had bodies to return to. Poor Martha seemed dim by comparison, but she also fit in better. This was where she belonged now, whereas Veronica and Heather were out of place.

The spirit world was like an enormous room full of doorways to every location you could think about going. Veronica briefly considered abandoning her insane plan and going to Seattle to be a ghost there forever, but— despite having hanged herself earlier that evening— she didn’t want to be dead. So she went to JD’s house instead.

It was empty. JD’s dad had taken most of the boxes and left town by the looks of it. Veronica sighed heavily and wandered through the rooms until she found what she was looking for in the den. Explosives. Whether Bud had forgotten them in his haste or left them for some purpose, she would never know. The only important thing was that the spirit had a way to destroy the school. Veronica wished she could destroy them or hide them, but she didn’t have enough energy to even move them. Cursing her incorporeality, Veronica went back to the spirit world. There were more ghosts there than before, the word about the medium entering their domain had spread apparently.

Veronica searched every face she came across, looking for JD. The books she’d read hadn’t told her what happened to a soul when the body was possessed. She had been hoping it was forced out, so that he could join their mission as a ghost. But JD would have come to find her immediately, she was certain of that.

The fact that his soul was trapped in his body with that _thing_ horrified her, and she knew she would have to put some very theoretical passages from her grandmother’s books to the test. If his soul was still in his body, he could still be saved. She knew he would want her to kill him to keep everyone safe, but Veronica wasn’t in the habit of giving up on people.

_Keep your head up, JD. I’m coming. Don’t worry._

With that, Veronica slipped out of the spirit world, pulling Heather and Martha with her. Her room was empty, and her body was still swaying slightly, hanging from the rod in her closet.

It was really fucking disturbing to see her body swinging from a noose.

_Okay, here’s the difficult part._ Focusing all of her energy, Veronica stepped back into her body.

For a moment, she was suffocating as she remembered how to breathe. Her fingers fumbled to untie the rope that was holding her up, but she got it eventually. Veronica landed in a clumsy heap on her closet floor, and lay there for a second gathering her strength.

Coming back from the dead was disorienting.

Disorienting and tiring. Veronica stood up and went to her bed, intending to get her books and make a plan, but the bed was soft and warm, and she sank into it.

Heather had other plans. “Veronica!” She stood with her fists on her hips, glaring down at the exhausted girl on the bed, “I believe you have something to take care of?”

A part of Veronica wanted to argue. The Veronica that had blackmailed Heather into letting her join the most powerful clique in school would have. But the Veronica that was left over after all of this didn’t have it in her. She rolled off of the bed and began to dig through the bag of weapons JD had left in her room.

She talked to Heather as she gathered everything she needed and began to make a plan using the map her grandmother had drawn. “Okay, so it looks like the ward was built into the foundation, so if I were trying to destroy it, I would want to be in the basement.” She pointed to it on the map. “That’s right below the gym, I think. The spirit will want to do as much damage as it can, so I’m willing to bet that the bomb is going to go off during the pep rally tomorrow.” She looked straight into Heather’s eyes, “Unless we stop it.”

 

That determination carried her through the rest of the night. Once she was at school, she tried to pretend everything was normal. Duke and McNamara approached her as soon as she arrived. Veronica ignored the feeling of her knife tucked into the back of her skirt and tried to act normal.

“Hey Veronica,” McNamara looked tired, and her eyes were red rimmed from crying, “Heather’s parents called last night, she isn’t doing well. The doctors say she might not have a lot of time left.”

Veronica felt a stab of guilt. Heather had been in her room last night helping her prepare for today. She wished she could tell them that she knew for a fact that Heather Chandler was actually in less danger than they were right now. Instead she pretended to be grieving, “Oh my god, that’s terrible.”

Duke nodded and swallowed hard, “I still feel like she’s just going to burst through the door one morning like nothing happened. I can’t wrap my head around it.”

McNamara and Veronica both nodded and Veronica patted Duke’s shoulder. Looking over at them, Duke bit her lip and asked, “Can we skip today? I don’t think I can deal with classes on top of everything else.”

“Yes!” Veronica said too quickly, “You should skip. I can’t because I… Have a test, but you should go without me.” She really wanted them out of the building, and as far away from it as possible. She couldn’t warn the rest of the school without tipping the spirit off, but she could try to save them at least.

But McNamara shook her head, “It’s the pep rally today, I have to be there for my routine.”

Duke rolled her eyes, “Ugh, I guess I’ll stay then. I can’t believe we’re still having this thing after everything that happened.”

“I heard they want to do some kind of tribute.” McNamara replied. Veronica felt a stab of sympathy for her; it wasn’t enough that she’d been assaulted, the school also had to have a memorial for the guys that had hurt her.

Duke seemed to feel the same way, and Veronica wondered when Heather had told her what happened. “They don’t deserve a memorial. I’m not even sad they’re dead.”

“Heather!” Heather snapped quickly, looking around to see if anyone had overhear, “You can’t say stuff like that.”

“Why not?” Duke said with a shrug, “It’s true. I’d be willing to bet there are a few girls in this school who feel the same way.”

Veronica wanted to agree with her, but her stomach twisted when she thought of Kurt and Ram outside her window. They had vanished when JD arrived and she hadn’t encountered them in the spirit world. They could be anywhere.

Veronica was relieved when the bell rang, the Heathers turned to walk away and she made up an excuse to avoid going with them. She had to see if the bomb was already set.

The spirit had been busy while she was chatting. The bleachers all had large packs of explosives taped to them. Veronica carefully gathered all of them in her backpack and carried it out to the football field, where she left them. When this was all over, she could find somewhere else to store them.

She made a point to show up for the rest of her classes so that there was no risk of her parents being called. She didn’t need them coming into the building right now.

She had managed to avoid JD all day, carefully ducking into bathrooms and classrooms whenever she caught a glimpse of his tall figure. Veronica wished he still had his coat; it would have made him even easier to spot. The coat was hidden in her closet, and she hoped to eventually return it to its rightful owner.

She also hoped to return JD’s body to its rightful owner.

All of the books she’d read the night before had convinced her that she had the power to do this, she just had to figure out how to use it.

_Energy and Intent. That’s all you need. Energy and Intent._

Veronica repeated those words over and over to herself, hoping that she would understand what they meant if she kept saying them. The books agreed that you had to focus your energy and apply it intentionally, but those were hardly detailed instructions. JD’s life was on the line though, because she knew that the only other way to stop the ghost was to kill the body it inhabited.

_I’ll do my best, JD._ Veronica hoped it would be good enough.

When the final bell rang, she stood calmly and walked into the crowded hall, walking past the other students without acknowledging any of them. Martha joined her, briefly.

“Good luck,” She whispered in Veronica’s ear. Veronica nodded, wishing she could hug the ghost. It was nice to know that someone was still on her side.

Heather Chandler didn’t show. Veronica hadn’t seen her since the last night, and it bothered her. Heather had apparently abandoned Veronica to face JD and save the school on her own. In the end, it didn’t matter. Veronica knew that she was the only person who had any chance of stopping this.

No one paid her any attention when she slipped through the boiler room door and locked it behind her. She could faintly hear the sounds of the pep rally beginning.

He was crouched next to the boiler, focusing intently on the explosives he was attaching to it. From where she was standing, Veronica couldn’t see the odd shadows on his face, but her spine still tingled when she looked at him. As hard as it was, she had to stop thinking of him as JD. This was something else entirely, and if she couldn’t get rid of it, she had to kill them both.

She took a few cautious steps forward, flinching at the slightest noise. She had closed half the distance between them and reached for her knife. Only a few more steps.

“Don’t move.” He pointed a gun at her without looking up.

She froze, not nearly close enough to do what she had to do. She left the knife hidden in her skirt in case she got a better chance to use it. He finished whatever he was doing and looked up. When he recognized her, he looked surprised and eerily amused. “Veronica. Nice trick, we were both convinced that you died. Our boy was very broken up about it. He nearly killed us on the way over, in fact. He’s pretty strong. He got control of one hand while we were driving and almost managed to crash the bike.”

Veronica felt the blood leave her face and her stomach dropped. _JD tried to kill himself._ She couldn’t help but feel a little responsible, the spirit certainly seemed to think it was her fault. She kept her voice calm when she replied, “Step away from the bomb.” She wanted to say something else, add some kind of threat to convince him she had the upper hand, but she didn’t have anything. She just stood tall and glared at him.

He laughed at her. It sounded hollow and metallic, nothing at all like the warm chuckle she’d gotten used to from the real JD. “I’d hardly call this a bomb, it’s just to trigger the packs of thermals upstairs in the gym. Did you know this boy knows an _awful_ lot about how to blow up a building. Like father like son.”

Now it was Veronica’s turn to smirk, “Oh, sorry did you need those explosives in the gym? Sorry I already got rid of them.”

His eyes narrowed as he glared at Veronica, trying to determine if she was telling the truth. Her smile widened, “You shouldn’t leave important things lying around.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that this bomb is going off in less than ten minutes.” His smile was now unnaturally wide, and the shadows on his face moved and twisted. She barely recognized the boy she loved. “You won’t be getting out in time to save yourself.”

“I won’t let you destroy the ward.” She insisted. He glanced back at the timer on the bomb and she seized the chance and dove towards him, knocking the gun out of his hand. It clattered to the floor and ended up underneath some machinery, unreachable for both of them.

Though her first move had been successful, JD was much stronger than Veronica, and he quickly overpowered her. He wrapped his hands around her throat and lifted her effortlessly off the ground. Veronica was choking and gasping for breath, but he was finally close enough for her to do what she’d really come here to do.

_Energy and Intent. Focus! You can do this Veronica._

Summoning all of her strength and motivation, Veronica thrust her hand out and planted her palm on JD’s chest. “LEAVE HIM ALONE!”

The impact felt like an explosion, and two souls were ripped from their bodies.


	16. Safety

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is suuuper short so I decided to just go ahead and post it so I can start working on the next one. Hopefully I can get that done before I leave this weekend, because I don't want to leave you with this cliffhanger for too long. Please Please Please give me story requests and suggestions, I need a new idea now that I'm wrapping up this one. Enjoy!

JD woke up cold and confused on the basement floor. Veronica was lying next to him with her eyes closed. His whole body hurt.

“Fucking ghosts,” He muttered, groaning as he sat up to check for serious injuries.

There weren’t any, though his shoulder still hurt and his hand was scratched up and badly bruised from when the spirit had punched a wall. He looked down and noticed that Veronica hadn’t moved since he’d woken up. JD nudged her shoulder gently, “Veronica, wake up. He’s gone now.” Her head dropped to the side, but she didn’t stir. He shook her harder, “Veronica, you have to get up, there’s still a bomb.” He looked over at the red numbers, still ticking down. “Shit, Veronica please!”

But she wasn’t going to wake up. He didn’t want to believe that she was dead. She had faked her death before, and he just had to pray she was doing it again for some reason. He didn’t want to think about the alternative.

Thankfully, the bomb attached to the boiler was there to provide a distraction. He stared at it, frustrated that—though his hands had built it—he didn’t know how to shut it off. There were three obnoxious red buttons on the front of it, probably put there just to taunt anyone who tried to turn it off. Instinctively, he knew that the wrong one would set the thing off, and kill him and Veronica if not the whole school. He had a one in three chance of saving everyone. He had a two in three chance of killing everyone.

JD gave up on the buttons.

The wires coming from the top were all the same color, unlike in movies so that tactic wasn’t going to work either. He wondered if he could go upstairs and try to make everyone leave the building, but he doubted they would listen to the screaming psycho in a trench coat. The spirit had cut the fire alarms, so he couldn’t think of a way to empty the building on his own. He glanced over at the body on the ground; Veronica would have been able to do it.

It didn’t matter. He examined the tape that held the bomb in place. If he was careful, he should be able take it down and carry it outside where it couldn’t hurt anyone. That was assuming that the seven minutes he had left would be enough.

Even knowing how little time he had, JD went over to the body on the floor, bent down, and kissed her forehead. “I know I really fucked things up, Veronica, but I’m going to make them right again. Stay here, keep the town safe. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.” He whispered the words to her as if she were going to wake up any minute, and he really hoped she would.

He told himself not to look back at her as he walked up the stairs. He looked anyway.

His mission was to carry the bomb as far away as he could. He tried not to think about his hands wrapped around Veronica’s throat. Or what it felt like to watch himself put this bomb together. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t wanted to do it. He should have fought harder. He should have found a way.

He tried not to think about the voice in his head that was telling him to just keep walking with the bomb. To hold onto it until the timer ran out. But the voice was getting louder.

JD was almost at the football field now. He could leave it here… or he could just stand here. For all he knew, Veronica was really dead. She had died trying to get that thing out of him. If he blew himself up, that sacrifice will have been for nothing.

The grass was vibrantly green in the bright sunlight, and soft under his feet. He stopped a couple dozen yards from the centerline and stood there, frozen.   _Put it down!_ His limbs didn’t obey him.

“JD! Put the bomb down!” For a long moment, he thought he’d imagined her voice, but no, Veronica Sawyer was definitely walking across the field towards him.

Strangely, that made him clutch the bomb even tighter against his chest, as if his body alone could shield her from the upcoming blast. They didn’t have much time. “Stay back, Veronica!” He shouted, but she ignored him and continued to walk forward.

“JD, if you don’t put the bomb down, you’ll die.” It was almost funny how obvious that sentence was, but he wasn’t laughing.

Instead, he closed his eyes, willing her to step back, or at least stop coming closer. “I deserve to die.” He said to her.

She was close enough now that he could see her eyes narrow, “I _respectfully_ disagree.”

“Veronica, I did all of this. _I_ did. I built this bomb. I tried to kill you. I killed Kurt and Ram and all the others before them. You can’t fix me, Veronica. Just let me go.” He didn’t know when he’d started crying, but his voice broke on the last word. His next words were probably barely audible, “Please just let me go.”

Veronica was right in front of him now, too close for safety. “Never.” And she wrapped her arms around him.

He felt like she was the only thing holding him together. She clung to him while he cried into her hair, “You don’t know what it was like, Ronnie. I could see everything he was doing. I _felt…”_ He couldn’t describe what it felt like to see himself hurting her, killing her, and not being able to do anything. “I couldn’t stop him.”

“I know, I know,” She whispered, “He’s gone now. You’ll be alright.”

He wanted to tell her that he was pretty sure he was beyond repair at this point, but she pulled away sharply, staggering back.

She had the bomb in her hands.

He opened his mouth to say something, to demand it back, or tell her to get rid of it, but she was busy winding up and throwing the bomb as hard as she could.

It landed with a thud just to the left of the center of the field. “Fuck.” Veronica whispered, staring at it.

“What’s wrong?” She ignored his question, choosing instead to grab his hand and start dragging him to the edge of the field. JD followed her, still confused.

She glanced over her shoulder, “Shitshitshitshitshit.” She yanked even harder on his still sore arm and he stumbled, trying to run and look back at the same time.

“Veronica, please tell me what’s going on!” He gasped as they continued to make their way across the field.

Her eyes were wild and she glanced over her shoulder again while she explained. “You know how there were a bunch more bombs in the gym?” He nodded, “Yeah, I took them all out here and left them in the middle of the field.”

JD looked over his shoulder and noticed the outline of a backpack, barely visible in the grass. It was right next to the bomb she’d thrown.

“Fuck.” He agreed and finally began to run in earnest, tugging her behind him. There were enough explosives on this field to blow up the whole school, and he had no idea what their full range would be.

His heartbeat echoed in his ears, every footstep hurt, but he only had one thing on his mind. _Get Veronica OUT._

They didn’t make it off the field before the bomb went off.

 


	17. Meanwhile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rushed this chapter a little bit so I hope there aren't more errors than usual. I loved writing this chapter because I got to play with a whole new voice. I'm dedicating it to Xanthera because your comment made me laugh out loud at work, which is not a thing I do very often. Enjoy!

Heather Chandler woke up in the hospital. For a moment, she felt like she was drowning in her own skin, suffocating under the weight of having a body again. Then the feeling passed and she could fully relish in how wonderful it was to be solid again. And a damn good body at that, despite all the tubes that were currently hooked up to it. She squealed a little, happy to finally be free of all the restrictions of being a ghost.

But she didn’t have time to be excited, she had a school to save. Heather had watched Veronica all night, pouring over her books with increasing frustration. Heather hadn’t told that she thought Veronica was wasting her time. The poor girl was desperate to save her boyfriend. Well Heather Chandler was desperate to save everybody else, and she was going to do it.

If that meant killing Jason Dean, then it sucks to be him.

Heather carefully removed the IV from her arm, but not carefully enough to avoid hurting herself. The sticky patches attached to all the wires were the next to go. Unfortunately, that meant that the machine they had been hooked up to started beeping like a psychotic alarm clock.

Two nurses immediately burst into the room and promptly dropped the files they were holding when they saw she was sitting up.

Heather smiled, “Hi, I’d like to get the fuck out of here please? I feel fine now.”

Both nurses exchanged glances, “Sweetie, you need to lie down. This might come as a shock to you, but you’ve been in a coma for a week.”

“Yes, I know that. That’s why I want to leave. Feeding tubes don’t exactly provide fine dining.” Heather rolled her eyes, but underneath her sarcastic façade she was panicking. She really needed to get to the school.

One of the nurses leaned in to the other and whispered something to her. The second one left. The first one smiled gently at Heather, “You need to rest—“

“I’ve been resting for a week!” Heather snapped. The nurse looked taken aback, but she collected her files and set them on a side table. Heather could tell she was about to start talking again, so she cut her off, “Look, I feel great okay, I’m going to live forever, who do I talk to about leaving? I have something important to do.”

The nurse eyed Heather curiously, “What could possibly be so important?”

 _The death of hundreds of teenagers._ “I’m missing class.”

“Sweetie, it’s good that you care about your schoolwork but I don’t think you understand how seriously ill you were. You were poisoned.” The nurse’s face was full of sympathy that Heather didn’t want.

So she rolled her eyes and fell into a role that made her comfortable, the queen bitch of Westerburg high, “I poisoned myself, moron, but now I’m happy and healthy so I’m going to go home.” Heather gritted her teeth and started to stand up again, but the nurse was forceful this time and pushed her back into the bed.

The other nurse had returned with a doctor who joined them at her bedside. Heather tried to swat their hands away but they ignored her and continued to poke and prod and check her pulse. She was starting to think she would have been more helpful as a ghost.

            After what felt like eons of examination, the doctor stood up and turned to Hector and Lillian Chandler who were waiting anxiously in the doorway. “Sir, Ma’am, I can’t explain it at all, but your daughter appears to be fully recovered. It’s as if there was never anything wrong with her in the first place. I recommend you get her some psychological help—“

“Excuse me, I’m right here!” Heather butted in, she hated being talked about as if she wasn’t in the room. And she _didn’t_ need a fucking shrink! _I swear to God if Veronica and JD live through all of this, I’m going to kill them for writing that fucking note._

“Yes of course, dear,” The doctor said absently, returning his attention to her parents, “An outburst like this is common at her age, I don’t doubt she’ll be fine.”

The adults beamed, and Heather caught her stepmother brushing away a couple tears. It would have been a happy moment if Heather hadn’t been so desperate to leave.

 

They wouldn’t let her. Despite her apparent recovery, the doctors wanted to run dozens of tests to make sure she was actually fine. Heather asked to leave so many times they threatened to sedate her. She stopped asking.

Hours ticked by and Heather checked the clock constantly. The pep rally had started, and she had no way of knowing what was happening at the school. A hospital bed was quite possibly the worst place to feel restless. The nurse—who turned out to be named Beulah— kept scolding her to sit still and rest, but Heather ignored her. Her mind was racing and she struggled to calm herself down and trust that Veronica could handle this on her own.

 But Heather knew Veronica. Veronica Sawyer was a bluebird, a Girl Scout cookie, not a badass. And even if she found a way to stop the bomb, Heather was in no way convinced she would do anything to hurt JD, even if it meant not getting rid of the spirit.

Beulah was finally removing Heather’s IV when they heard the commotion in the hall. Doctors and nurses were running down the halls and Heather heard the clatter of stretcher wheels careening down the hall.

Then she heard the words “Teenagers… The high school… explosion.”

Heather leapt out of bed and charged toward the door, Beulah tried to stop her, but Heather whipped around and snarled, “They’re my friends!” And she took off down the hall.

She arrived just in time to see the back wheels of a gurney disappear through the doors at the end of the hall. The hair was so coated in ash and dirt she couldn’t even tell what color it was.

Beulah finally caught up to her, “You can’t go in there hon.”

Heather just nodded, staring silently at the door. Wondering who they were trying to save. “What happened at the high school?” She asked, her voice barely audible over the buzz of conversation and medical jargon in the hall.

“We don’t know much, just that there was an explosion of some kind on the football field. Two students were cutting class and got caught in the blast.”

Her eyes went wide and the cool exterior she normally clung to so viciously vanished as she realized what had happened. Two students had been injured. JD and Veronica. _But the field blew up instead of the school…_

They had sacrificed themselves to save everyone else. Or at least Veronica had. For all Heather knew, JD might still be possessed. She hatched a plan to take care of that once and for all.

“Beulah?” The nurse nodded, “I don’t think I want to go home anymore. Can I spend the night here?” Heather tried to make her voice as sweet and innocent as she could, but she missed the mark somewhat. She sounded suspicious.

But the nurse was sweet and overworked and she didn’t seem to notice or care. “I’m glad you want to stay. You were going to have to anyway.”

Heather nodded and let the Beulah lead the way back to her room. Along the way, Heather casually stole a scalpel from a cart as she walked by. She hid it under her pillow once she got back to her room.

“Could you be sure to update me about the teenagers they brought from Westerburg?” Heather asked, “I think they might be classmates of mine.” The nurse agreed to do so and then left Heather alone.

The waiting was the hardest part. Her dad and stepmother came in to sit with her for about an hour, but they did little to relieve her tension. The only notable thing that came out of it was that Hector Chandler apologized for something for the first time in his life. Somehow, the bullshit note Veronica wrote had convinced him that he was partially responsible for her “suicide attempt”. Heather chose not to tell him that it was actually her first successful endeavor in witchcraft. For now, the drain cleaner secret was hers to keep.

They left, and Heather fell into an uneasy sleep. Nurses came and went, occasionally asking if she needed anything. She always said no and asked them to leave with varying levels of politeness.

She finally perked up when Beulah returned. “It’s the end of my shift so I’m heading out. I just wanted to let you know that one of the teens they brought in today, the boy, he’s doing fine. They’re still working on the girl though. I told one of my friends to give you any new information about her.”

“Thank you,” Heather said, with more gratitude than she had ever expressed in her life.

 

Heather waited for it to get dark before she snuck out of her room, the stolen scalpel clutched in her hand. She wandered the rooms, glancing in each one, to find a familiar face. Her heart lurched when she finally saw him.

JD looked like shit. They’d barely cleaned him up. His hair was a mess, his face was bruised, his arm was in a sling, he really looked like he’d been in an explosion. Despite how much pain he must have been in, he was asleep, though he looked less than peaceful. Heather eyed him suspiciously for a moment, before she advanced.

His eyes opened when she pressed the blade of the scalpel against his neck.

“Heather… What the fuck?” JD stared at her, confused and frightened. His eyes darted from side to side, taking in his surroundings. “Where’s Veronica? What happened? Heather, is she okay?”

He definitely _seemed_ like normal, not-possessed JD, but Heather didn’t want to risk it. She left her blade right where it was. “Are you still possessed?”

He attempted to shake his head, but must have thought better of it when she held the knife steady against his artery. “No.”

“That sounds like something a possessed person would say.”

JD sighed, “Well how the fuck do you want me to convince you? Heather just tell me what’s going on, if it makes you feel better you can keep holding me at knifepoint.”

That _didn’t_ sound like something a possessed person would say, so Heather finally lowered her weapon, secretly relieved she hadn’t had to use it. Taking a deep breath, Heather tried to fill in JD on everything she knew.

“I wanted to help Veronica and I knew I needed a body to do it so I came here to get mine, but when I woke up they wouldn’t let me leave. I was stuck in the hospital, and I heard them come in with you guys, talking about the explosion. All I know is Veronica was hurt pretty badly and you turned out slightly better.”

Heather was terrified when she realized that JD was about to cry. “Jesus, this is better? I need to see her. I just need to make sure she’s not-“ He choked on the last word and didn’t finish the sentence. Heather awkwardly patted his hand and avoided looking at his face.

He eventually collected himself enough to whisper, “She was only there because of me.”

“It’s not your fault,” Heather said, but the words sounded false. And they were. Heather definitely blamed JD for the pain her friend was currently in.

JD shook his head, “yes it is. I carried the bomb out to the field and she followed me to make sure I got away from it.”

Heather’s eyes narrowed, “You weren’t going to, were you?” She didn’t mean for it to come out sounding so harsh, but she really couldn’t believe this boy.

Avoiding her gaze, he replied, “I don’t know. I don’t think so. After everything I did— everything I’ve done— I just felt like…” He stopped, understandably struggling to articulate his thoughts.

Heather didn’t bother to let him finish. “ You can’t just blow yourself up every time you do something wrong. Veronica deserves better than that.” She gave him her most intense glare, the one that could peel rust off of metal. “Don’t. Do it. Again.”

Eyes wide he nodded a little frantically, “Okay.” Satisfied, Heather smiled.

She stayed with him for a while after that, but there wasn’t much to say. They were hardly each other’s first choice for company, and they both missed Veronica. She mediated between them and kept them from arguing too much. Heather eventually excused herself and went back to her room to get some sleep.

 

Beulah woke her early the next morning with the news, and Heather bounded out of bed to tell JD.

Heather rushed into his room, realizing that she hadn’t even glanced at her reflection before she’d come over here. She found she didn’t care too much.

She woke him up by poking him in the side, “Jesus, Heather, what the fuck?” He said, rubbing the sore spot left by her nails.

Heather beamed, “Veronica’s awake. She’s going to be fine.”

The relief and joy transformed his face so completely, Heather almost didn’t recognize the psycho trench coat kid from the lunchroom.


	18. Reunions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last official chapter. The next one will be an epilogue. Check out my Tumblr (Scouts-Mockingbird) for a mini-teaser for the sequel I might start working on. This chapter is for lesbianmermaid and lionsandmersea who both left such sweet comments on their bookmarks! Stay tuned because this will have an epilogue! Enjoy!

            Veronica was sitting up when JD arrived with Heather. Her parents had just stepped out to speak with her doctors, and they seized the opportunity to have her alone.

            JD’s heart was pounding, and he seriously considered walking away and never looking back. But when she saw him, she smiled and he calmed down enough to actually go up to her bedside.

            “Hi.” He said, unsure how you start a conversation like this. _I’m sorry I almost got you killed while I was trying to kill myself_ didn’t really seem like the right thing to say, even though it was true.

            “Hi,” She reached her hand out and grabbed his, “I’m glad you’re okay. They said you weren’t hurt too badly, but I couldn’t tell if they were just trying to calm me down.”

            JD nodded, “Yeah, I’m fine. Some cuts and bruises, and a dislocated shoulder,” He raised his arm so she could see the sling. “What about you?”

            _How badly did I hurt you?_

            “I got hit with some flying rocks or something and I needed a few stitches.” She squeezed his hand, trying to comfort _him_ for some absurd reason, “I’m fine though, it just took a long time because there was so much dirt they had to clean out.” She glanced away, picking at the rough hospital blanket. “I’m going to have some scars though.”

            He was finally able to return her smile, though it was a little too late, “I’ll still have more, I promise.”

            That made her laugh. Heather, who had been standing somewhat patiently at the door up until this point, chose to jump in, “I’m glad you’re alive, now can we talk about what’s important? What _happened?_ ”

            As much as he would have liked to just sit here and talk with Veronica as if nothing was wrong, he knew Heather was right. And he was extremely curious about what had happened in the boiler room.

            Veronica took a deep breath and let it out slowly. When she was ready, she began. “I’ve always known that a medium could banish spirits from a place—force them into the spirit world—but there wasn’t a lot of information about whether they could force one out of a body. I found something that said that physical contact and energy could potentially make it happen. So I tried.” Veronica shrugged, but her face had grown dark. “I did realize it would send me into the spirit world too. I didn’t realize I would have to fight it there.”

            JD’s jaw dropped, “You fought it?” He couldn’t really imagine Veronica fighting anything, despite the fact that she had seemed ready to confront him with a knife the day before.

            “It wasn’t really like fighting exactly. We were both in the spirit world, so it was kind of solid, like it was the night it grabbed me, but the rules there are different. I can’t describe it. I guess it was like… arm wrestling,” Veronica hesitated, so Heather interrupted.

            “Arm wrestling?” She sounded skeptical.

            “Like we were locked together, but we were both trying to be stronger than the other.” Veronica was staring into space; her dark eyes were haunted. JD cautiously reached up to push her hair away from her face.  

            He knew exactly what a feat it was for her to have fought that thing off. He’d been fighting it since he left the library and had only managed to get control of one hand for a couple seconds. Her abilities had astounded him from day one, and he suspected they would only be getting more impressive now that she was actually using them.

            “So… you won?” Heather asked, drawn into Veronica’s story.

            Veronica was still gazing into the distance, lost in the memory. “Yeah, I think I did. It was gone at the end of the fight, and I wasn’t. Then I went back to my body.” She looked at JD, “You were already gone. Martha saw you and told me you had the bomb. She saved your life.”

            “Remind me to thank her.” He wasn’t really sure he was grateful. He could see the bruises on Veronica’s neck and he knew that his hands had put them there, and he wasn’t sure anything could make that okay.

            JD looked at the girls he was sitting with; between the three of them they had two faked suicides and an attempted suicide. His life had never been normal, and it seemed he was dragging other people into it too.

            “What do you think you’re doing?” The alarmed voice came from a nurse standing in the doorway.

            Three guilty faces turned to her, “We were just… visiting.” Heather smiled, but the nurse didn’t wasn’t moved.

            “All of you, back to your rooms. NOW.”

Heather left immediately and JD moved to follow her, but Veronica was still holding his hand and she used it to pull him back. She kissed his cheek, “Hey, I love you.”

He smiled a little, “I love you too.” He turned and this time she let him leave.

 

He was back in his room for about twenty minutes before the police showed up and stared asking questions about the bomb. He didn’t have good answers. He realized very belatedly that he should have gotten a story straight with Veronica before this happened.

All he could tell them was that he had snuck out of class with Veronica, that he didn’t know why the bomb was there, or where it had come from. Of course, they had done enough research to know what his dad did for a living and figured—correctly— that he had access to explosives. It wasn’t hard to figure out that he was suspect number one.

He had survived a possession just to go to prison.

Rescue came from the most unlikely source he could have imagined. Heather Chandler— showered and changed into a blazer and a bright red skirt— stood glaring at the police officers. “Why are you talking to him?”

The older officer who seemed to be in charge turned to her, “Miss Chandler, Jason is a person of interest in a crime. You need to leave.”

Heather didn’t move. “Why would JD try to blow up Westerburg? He hasn’t been here nearly long enough to realize what a Godless hellscape it is. You’re definitely looking for someone who’s been here for a while. Actually, there was a guy who talked about bombs in one of the lunchtime polls. I can get you my notes if you want?” She smiled, the very picture of a helpful student. The officers exchanged glances and nodded.

They didn’t come back. Apparently some of the lunchtime poll answers Heather had gotten since the beginning of the school year were alarming enough to make them forget all about JD. Veronica lied and told them she and JD had snuck off to the football field to have sex and nobody questioned it. She would be grounded once she got out of the hospital, but everyone believed that they had simply been in the wrong place and the wrong time.

Heather was the first to be released, but they had decided to keep and eye on both JD and Veronica for a few days. JD didn’t care why, he was glad to have a chance to talk to Veronica. He snuck into her hospital room the next night so he could talk to her.

She smiled when she saw him. Despite everything, she didn’t seem to hate him. That was alright though; he hated himself enough for the both of them.

“How are you?” He asked hesitantly. He didn’t want to hear her lie about her condition. Though she tried to hide it, JD knew that Veronica was in a lot of pain, and he knew that she wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for him.

“I’m fine. I’m a little bored of hospital food, but other than that, really great!” She was too cheerful, her bright voice belied by her somber eyes.

“Veronica, please stop pretending for me. You don’t need to do that.”

She didn’t seem to agree. Her beautiful eyes searched his face, and he wondered what she saw there. “JD, I’m not pretending. Not much, anyway. I just don’t want you to fall apart.” He started to tell her that he was fine, but the lie died on his lips. She was too smart to believe it anyway. “I wish you could have seen yourself on that field JD. God, your eyes…”

“I know what I looked like.” He muttered, he had seen the look before, in a distant pair of eyes, staring out a library window.

She gripped his hand tight enough to hurt. He was glad for the pain. “It scared me. JD, _you_ scared me. You would have done it. Every time you leave this room, I’m afraid you’re going to go back to that place.” She paused to take a breath, “There’s so much darkness in you.”

A fist had wrapped around his lungs and was squeezing them. He barely managed to reply, “You’re right.” And he knew she was. His dreams the night before had been full of people he’d killed. Even Kurt and Ram made an appearance.

“But I have it too.”

He stared at her. He couldn’t imagine anyone further from the darkness than her. “No you’re not, you’re—“

“What?” She snapped, “Pure? Perfect? Don’t put that on me, it isn’t true. I knew what I was doing when I wrote that note for Kurt and Ram. I wanted to do something to hurt them. I wasn’t even a little bit sad that they were dead. So let me have my darkness and I’ll let you have yours.”

JD nodded slowly. What she was saying made an odd kind of sense, but he wasn’t quite ready to forgive himself for hurting her. He wasn’t even entirely set on not killing himself. But she made him want to keep fighting. “Okay.”

Veronica smiled, “Great, because I’d like you to take me on a date.”

“A… What?” He asked, the mental whiplash from what they had been talking about to this left him feeling off balance.

She rolled her eyes, but that smile was still playing around her lips, “A date. You know, we both go out and have fun? Maybe see a movie and grab some food?”

Hesitantly, he let himself smile, “Okay. I guess we have been dating for a week and I haven’t actually taken you out.”

“I don’t even know how we decided that we were together.”

“You broke into my house,” He reminded her, “Then we made Heather Chandler’s coma look like a suicide attempt. It’s not dinner and a movie, but I think that was a significant milestone in our relationship.”

They were actually laughing now, and JD let happiness wash over him for the time being. Maybe he would wake up tomorrow and wish he’d been closer to the bomb when it went off but for now, he was glad to be alive.

 

            When they released him from the hospital the next day, JD went back to the rental house to gather up the stuff his father had left behind. In the end, all he kept was his mother’s old books, and his own clothes. He had enough weapons (safely stored underneath Veronica’s bed for now) and there wasn’t anything else that had much value to him. He took his box and brought it to Westerburg, where he set up residence in an unused supply closet. No one had been able to reach his father.

 

            People at school the next day were wary of the two of them. JD was used to that treatment. Veronica was not.

            “Damn it, JD! They are _all_ staring at us. Do you think they think we did it?” Her dark eyes were darting nervously around the crowded halls. He put his hand on her lower back, but she didn’t seem overly comforted.

            He looked around, making eye contact with a few people who all quickly turned away. “They definitely think we did it, and they aren’t exactly wrong; one of us did do it.”

            Veronica rolled her eyes, “Okay, fine but I wish they would stop staring. The police don’t suspect us anymore.” JD chose not to point out that they had never suspected _them,_ just him. “Don’t they have anything more interesting to talk about?”

            He was about to tell her that there probably wasn’t anything more interesting than the students who had maybe blown up the football field, when something more interesting arrived.

            The hallway fell eerily silent.

            Everyone turned to stare.

            Heather Chandler stood framed by the open doors, perfectly posed. The students stared at her as she slowly walked towards the other Heathers, taking her time and soaking up the attention.

            One thing hadn’t changed; Heather Chandler still ruled Westerburg High.

            She arrived at her locker while JD, Veronica, and the rest of the school looked on. Veronica straightened up and turned towards them. “I should go over there.”

            She looked nervous, and he was amazed that a girl who could confidently fight her possessed boyfriend would still be afraid of three popular girls. He smiled at her, “I’ll go with you if you want. For backup?” He almost regretted offering; the last thing he wanted was to be lumped in with that group but Veronica looked so relieved that he wouldn’t have dreamed of taking it back.

They walked over to the Heathers and McNamara smiled cautiously at them. Duke seemed wary, but her eyes were bright with interest. Chandler had the slightest hint of a smile, as if she were reminding them that they had a secret.

Heather took a deep breath, and her smile slipped away, transforming into something far more genuine and far less conniving. “Heather,” She was looking at McNamara, “I want to tell you that I…” She paused as if she couldn’t find the right words. “I… care a lot about you and I’m glad to be your friend.” She turned to Duke, “Both of you, actually. You’re…” She turned to Veronica for help, but she only nodded encouragingly. Heather had to speak her own mind on this one. “You’re good friends and I’m sorry that I’m not always… that.” She finally stopped and let herself breathe. JD wondered how long those words had been weighing on her mind.

McNamara’s eyes were bright with tears, but she pulled Chandler into a tight hug. Chandler groped blindly until she grabbed the front of Duke’s jacket so she could pull her into the hug as well. Veronica joined happily while JD hovered awkwardly and waited for them to be finished.

They pulled apart, looking more relaxed than JD had ever seen them. Carefully wiping her eyes, Chandler went back to business, “And also, JD is going to be hanging out with us from now on.”

Everyone except Veronica looked at Heather as if she had just confessed to murder. Even JD.

Especially JD.

Before he could launch into a detailed description of exactly why that was a bad idea, Heather continued, “I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

“You seriously want us to hang out with _Thus Spake Zarathustra_?” Heather Duke said, “Didn’t he blow up the football field?” JD didn’t even mind the accusation because he liked the nickname so much. He had to hand it to the Heathers, they were more creative than any of the mean girls he’d met before.

“It wasn’t him!” Veronica snapped before Chandler could reply.

Duke tossed her hair, “Whatever, the real question is _why?_ ”

JD nodded, “I would also like to know that.”

“Shut up, JD, this is between us.” Chandler said. JD let out a frustrated breath and tried to keep his temper in check.

Veronica put a soothing hand on his arm. “I think it’s a good idea.”

“Well of course _you_ do, you’re dating him for some reason.”

Just then, a couple of guys who might as well have been Kurt and Ram for all their resemblance came over and started crowding Chandler, forcing McNamara back against the lockers. “Hey, Heather how come you tried to off yourself? Are you going to _cry_ about it?” They laughed obnoxiously, and Chandler flinched away while McNamara curled in on herself in an effort to get more space from them.

 _Finally, someone who deserves it._ JD stopped trying to control his temper. “Hey, why don’t you fuck off, we’re having a conversation.” He pulled himself to his full height and curled his hand into a fist, enjoying the dull ache from the still-healing bruise.

Eyes wide, the jocks both stepped back, hands up in surrender, “Hey man, just a joke. We didn’t mean any harm.” They turned and all but ran away. JD flexed his hand and let his breath out.

The girls shifted, and McNamara straightened up, “I think we should let him in.”

After that, it was decided. Whether or not he wanted to be, JD was with the official muscle of the Heathers.


	19. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a little short epilogue that sets up for the sequel, which (if I write it because I'm busy right now but I like this idea) will be a BMC crossover. I'm also nearly finished with the Victim epilogue so that'll be up soon too. Check out my tumblr for a mini-teaser for the sequel to this. If you ever have any questions about anything I've written, please ask me! I love all these universes and I could go on about them for ages, I have weird little details and scenes I never wrote for all of them, so just ask me anything. As for this epilogue, I just love it. Enjoy!

Three weeks later, JD was in Veronica’s bedroom with her and Heather Chandler. The radio was on to some pop station while Heather and Veronica leaned over one of his mom’s books and talked about how to heal Veronica’s back faster.

“I think the plant that you use is less important, it’s more about what you’re trying to make happen. Let the plants guide you, but focus on energy and intent. That’s how it works for me.” Veronica turned the page and continued to study the spell.

Heather frowned at the mashed up leaves and flower petals in the bowl she was holding. “What if it doesn’t work?”

“Then I’ll smell like plants.” Aside from the one potion she had made that had put her into a coma, Heather hadn’t really accomplished anything with her witchcraft, although JD knew the books had been teaching her a lot.

Heather nodded, “Okay, he we go.” Veronica removed her shirt and JD pointedly averted his eyes, trying to focus on the book in front of him. Heather smeared the paste she had made over one of the many still healing cuts on Veronica’s back.

Carefully, Heather placed her hands over the cut, and JD was too interested to even pretend not to stare. Closing her eyes, the blonde girl focused and JD held his breath, waiting to see what would happen. It had been seven years since he’d seen someone heal a wound with witchcraft.

Veronica tensed up, and Heather let out a breath. Slowly, she pulled her hands away to see what had happened. JD held out a towel so Heather could wipe away the paste. “Fuck me gently with a chainsaw,” Heather breathed, staring at Veronica’s back.

“Holy shit,” JD cried as a smile spread across his face, “Heather you did it!”

Veronica craned her neck, trying to see what they were staring at, “Is there a scar? How does it look?”

The skin was shiny and pale pink, a faint scar that looked far better than it would have if they’d just let it heal. JD ran his fingers across it, “Just barely, it’s unbelievable.” Considering Veronica’s stiches had only come out a week ago, it looked incredible.

Heather was beaming and JD slapped her on the back in congratulations. Veronica pulled her shirt back on so she could hug her friend. “How do you feel?”

“Great!” Heather said, “I can’t believe it really worked. Maybe if I tweak the mixture a little I can even fix them without leaving a scar at all.” She turned back to the book and turned to a new section about hiding blemishes and scars.

JD took her distraction as an opportunity and kissed Veronica, savoring her enthusiastic reciprocation. God she was beautiful.

He was just about to tell her this when Mrs. Sawyer called up the stairs, “Veronica, telephone!”

“Coming, Mom!” Veronica shouted back. She stood up and straightened her clothes before leaving the room.

Heather set the book down, “So, I’m your favorite Heather now that I can fix Veronica’s back, right?” Somehow, Heather had decided there was a competition to become JD’s favorite. She wasn’t winning.

“Nope.” Heather Duke had been since favorite since she used a Niechze reference to make fun of him. They had bonded over a shared interest in American literature, and especially _Catcher in the Rye_. He had even gone so far as to let her borrow his collection of JD Salinger’s short stories, though only because he knew Heather took care of her books obsessively.

“Whatever, I don’t need to be loved, I’m feared.” It was true. Heather’s “suicide attempt” had made her more popular than ever, though only because some students were terrified of the way she had basically come back from the dead. She hadn’t changed her ways towards outsiders very much, and she still occasionally enjoyed a cruel prank on one of her classmates, but only the ones that deserved it. Getting revenge on the assholes at Westerburg was something she and JD had bonded over. Towards her inner circle, though, she had become far kinder. Almost losing McNamara had changed her.

Veronica returned with a perplexed look on her face and sat down on her bed, facing her friends. “That was Betty Finn.”

“What did that little dweebette want?” Heather asked, but Veronica appeared too lost in thought to glare at her.

“She said something weird is happening at her new high school. It sounded like a loose spirit to me.”

JD raised his eyebrows, “Well, you know, we have a long weekend next week.”

Heather smiled and dangled the keys to her Porsche, “Who’s up for a road trip?”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Summer Trip](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13639563) by [CrystalQueer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalQueer/pseuds/CrystalQueer)




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